Add two cups of corn syrup, two ounces of liquid bleach, two pinches of Epsom salts, a half teaspoon of Boraxo, and one teaspoon of chelated iron. Stir the ingredients thoroughly, then stand the tree in the solution outside for a day or two to let its tissues fill. Keep the tree well filled with this solution throughout the Christmas season. The corn syrup provides sugar for metabolism which in turn increases the tree's uptake of water. The boron in the Boraxo makes the sugar move through the tree faster.
Molds can clog the vessel in the butt and prevent the tree from taking up water.
More people are purchasing living trees for Christmas. You can plant them after the holidays, but it's tricky and you'll have to make some preparations ahead of time. Dig a planting hole larger than the tree's root ball before the soil freezes. Cover the hole and the soil you took out of it with a least six inches of leaves and cover them both with plastic to keep the rain our. Keep the living tree in the house no more than a week.