Mike McGrath, wtop.com

No dropped needles when you pre-water your tree!

Every year I swear I’m going to get to my Christmas tree advice before you crazy people start buying your trees and every year I start seeing trees in people’s living room windows a week earlier. Oy!

When did Christmas start the day after Halloween?

Anyway, if you want to avoid having a floor full of dropped needles so sharp you have to wear biker boots to breakfast, be sure to pre-water your tree. That’s right, pre-water. Cut trees get shipped to our area from all over, and if the weather in that region was dry in the weeks before the tree was cut, your Tannenbaum is already suffering a severe water deficit.

So, when you get a precut tree home, have a bow saw ready and use it to take about two inches off the bottom of the trunk. Bow saws are handy, inexpensive tools that are perfect for this and other limb-and-trunk trimming jobs