To help you select your tree this year, Mike Garvan, president of the New Hampshire-Vermont Christmas Tree Association, provides a glossary of terms for tree shoppers. Some will hold their needles longer than others, some will smell better. Although tradition plays a big part in tree selection, you might want to take another look at what's available. Selection of trees is much greater and quality much higher than it was ten years ago. It has medium length needles and will hold its needles for several weeks.
Blue spruces are shapely and beautiful, but their needles are usually stiff and sharp.
You may need to put on gloves while decorating a blue spruce. This species doesn't produce a strong scent and needle retention is only fair. Many Douglas firs on the market have been shipped from western U.S. plantations and may start shedding their needles when exposed to New England winter temperatures. The Fraser fir is fast overtaking the balsam fir in popularity. A Fraser looks much like the balsam, but if you check the underside of the branches, you'll see that the needles have a silver-blue cast.