How To: 5 Weird & Easy Ways to Water Your Christmas Tree

Christmas trees, once decorated and brightly lit, are the penultimate holiday decoration, but authentic pines lose their brilliance fast without any nourishment. Plus, they are major fire hazards without regular hydration. But watering one requires a lot of sliding around on the floor, and it can be hard to tell how much water is in the bowl beneath the dark, prickly branches. These five hacks can help!

1. Break Out Your Beer Bong

What's better than a tree watering device that requires zero bending and little effort? If you have a beer bong lying around or hiding in your box of old college stuff, pop it in your Christmas tree's stand and create an instant irrigation system. By placing the end of the beer bong's tubing into the tree stand's bowl, holding the funnel outside of the branches, you can quickly pour in any amount of water and refresh your tree.

2. Use a Funnel for a Quick Irrigation System

Happen to have a funnel and some plastic piping in your garage? You're just a few steps away from creating your own Christmas tree irrigation system. As Karla Archer of Living the Life Fantastic demonstrates, you don't need to be an expert handyman to rig an easy-to-use watering setup. All you need are two pieces of straight PVC pipe, two elbow connectors, and a cheap funnel.

Once your piping is put together, stick the end into your tree stand's bowl, and place the funnel in the top opening. Now, each time you'd like to add a little water, you can drop a dash or two right into the funnel.

3. Drink Up & Use a Wine Bottle

Forget crouching down or crawling around; with an empty wine bottle, you can tilt and pour easily to refill your tree's water bowl quickly.

Alyssa of My Clever Nest demonstrates the tactic on her blog and notes that the long neck of a wine bottle makes watering from a distance easier — and it'll keep you from spilling all over your fancy tree skirt. Those slim extra inches on the bottle offer a convenient pour spout that other containers, like water bottles, can't match.

With their similar design, empty beer bottles are also an excellent choice, though they obviously won't hold as much water.

4. Break Out Your Pool Noodle

Pool noodles don't have to sit around unused during the winter. As seen on Create Craft Love, they can be pretty handy at Christmastime. Stick your pool noodle into the tree's bowl or stand, then pop a spare funnel on top, centering it in the toy's opening. Now, you're ready to add water without any effort.

5. Set Up an Automatic Watering System

Plastic tubing and piping make the task of tree watering simple no matter how they're used, but with a few extra additions, you can rig a tube to keep your Christmas tree hydrated without refilling its bowl.

As Reddit user mgnichol explains, setting up an automatic tree-watering system takes some spare plastic tubing, a zip tie, and an empty plastic bin. Place one end of the tubing into the tree's stand and the other into the bin, making sure to secure the tubing to the container with the zip tie. Fill your bin with water, and you won't need to add a drop of liquid underneath the tree's branches throughout the holiday season.

The only problem is trying to figure out where to put the plastic bin, which is where Ricky Spears' idea comes in. He used a bucket and actually disguised it inside a box as a Christmas present. No one will be able to tell the difference, except for maybe the day after Christmas.

Whichever watering method you choose, it's easy to avoid rolling around on the floor beneath your tree and its priceless decorations. You might even wind up with a more hydrated tree thanks to the ease of your new system.

If you're really lazy, you could always just buy something like the Smart Tree Keeper, which is similar to the PVC method above except it gives you a warning system to let you know when your tree needs water.