A Whitehorse environmentalist says you shouldn't get a Christmas tree this year.

Lewis Rifkind, who works for the Raven Recycling Society, says, while the trees may look nice in the house, it's not a good environmental practice.

"They're really tough to compost," he says. "People cut the trees down, take them in their homes for a few weeks. They then get trucked up to the landfill by the city, which is a good thing because it removes the fire hazard from people's homes and stuff, but once here what do we do with them?"

Rifkind suggests people forget about the tradition of leaving gifts under a tree. Instead, he says, people can put gifts in stockings, or around a fireplace.