Danish christmas trees from Arctic regions to warmer skies
Denmark is a large exporter of christmas trees, and have sold 9.5 million christmas trees around the world in 2018. Germany accounts for 43% of the Danish exports of christmas trees, and is thus the largest purchaser of christmas trees from Denmark. Thereafter comes France, the UK, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Norway, Poland, Austria, Switzerland and the Netherlands, which accounts for 65% of the Danish christmas trees. Among the more exotic export markets are Morocco, Singapore and United Arab Emirates.
Our Nordic neighbors accounts for 11% of total exports with Sweden as the biggest buyer followed by Norway, Iceland and Finland. Denmark also supplies christmas trees to Greenland and the Faroe Islands.
Christmas trees also decorate your CO2 emissions
While enjoying a decorated christmas tree, you can at the same time enjoy the fact that the natural Christmas tree also decorates your CO2 emissions. Its modern cousin, the plastic tree, on the other hand, has a worse climate footprint, particularly due to the CO2 emissions during production and transportation. Studies has show that you must use your plastic tree for at least 20 years before it is as climate-friendly as a natural tree.
Christmas trees are particularly good at consuming CO2, which along the way are converted into carbon, which is bound in logs, branches, needles and in the soil. Over the course of a year, just one ready-to-sell christmas tree takes up approximately 4 kilos CO2. Throughout the life of the tree for 10 years, it becomes 18 kilos CO2, which corresponds to 12.2 tonnes of CO2 per year on just one hectare of christmas trees. It is of the same magnitude as the annual binding in Danish forests. One of the explanations is that the christmas trees stand close and fill approximately a square meter each in the plantation, they shoot quickly (up to 2 cm a day) and have many generations of needles.
The christmas tree tradition goes way back
The first decorated Christmas tree did not appear until 1510 in Riga. Here, a plate has been deposited in the central place of the city regarding the celebration of the 500th anniversary of the Christmas tree’s origins (in 2010). The first known Danish Christmas tree was lit on Holsteinborg Gods in South Zealand in 1808. The tradition of Christmas tree had come to Denmark from Germany, and families related to this German tradition were therefore among the first to take the tradition.