The city has agreed to make this a holiday tradition — picking up old Christmas trees well after the season — after needled New Yorkers griped about them clogging sidewalks long after St. Nick was gone.
The city’s longtime practice of limited “special” collection dates for holiday trash had resulted in scores of sidewalks blocked by old trees, according to hundreds of missed-collection complaints made to 311 between 2023 and 2024 alone, a Post analysis of public data found.
New Yorkers have made a total of 679 Christmas tree-collection complaints since 2022.
The cases were “resolved” sometimes as late into the year as mid-March.
Roughly half of all of the complaints between 2023 and 2024 came from five community boards and involved sections of Oakwood on Staten Island, Park Slope and Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn and Springfield Gardens in Queens.
Zero complaints have been logged so far in 2025, after the scheduling change at the end of 2024 assuring pickups later into the year.
This holiday season will mark the second year in a row for a longer Christmas tree pickup process.
In its Wednesday announcement, the city’s Department of Sanitation credited the scheduling shake-up to the expansion of the city’s curbside composting program, which turns food scraps, yard waste and food-soiled paper products into compost or renewable energy.
“Christmas trees will be collected curbside this week. And next week. And the week after. And even in May!” the agency wrote, noting Christmas trees are treated similarly to yard waste under the program.
“Naked” trees devoid of decorations can be placed at the curb on residents’ weekly composting and recycling day.
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