Unless you know your white firs from your Norway spruces, you’ll find the National Christmas Tree Association’s website (www.realchristmastrees.org) useful when choosing a holiday tree. The site gives the lowdown on color, shape, needle retention, and branch density for 16 popular types, Or consider the following:

Christmasy Scent

Want your home to smell like it’s been set down in a Vermont forest? Balsam firs are just this side of pine-fresh overload and maintain their scent longer than most other holiday trees do.

Strong Branches

If you like to smother your tree with heavy ornaments, a noble fir’s flexible branches can support them—and endure repeated tugs from children.

Needle Retention

The Fraser fir is the champ, Your vacuum will thank you.

Soft Needles

To avoid those ouches when the tree pricks your kids, choose a flexible-needled white pine.

Good for Allergy Sufferers

If a fresh tree brings tears to your eyes (the kind that makes you reach for the Claritin), try a Leyland cypress. It’s not a pollen producer, so its scent is much less sneeze-inducing.