Cut down your own Christmas tree
Cut down your own free Christmas tree in Park De Hoge Veluwe.
The only real free-range pine
For many people it has now become an annual tradition: seeing the Christmas tree themselves in De Hoge Veluwe National Park. Anyone who wants to have the only real free-range pine, the Scots pine, in their home this year can go to the park. At a designated location in the middle of the forest, visitors can choose a tree for free, cut it down and take it with them (one tree per visitor). Cutting the free-range pines has helped nature in the park enormously, because the pine trees grow in unique, open drifting sand areas. If the trees are not removed, this special landscape will overgrow and disappear. The visitors therefore directly ensure the preservation of this special landscape. An additional advantage of the free-range pine: it retains its needles, unlike the spruce.
How does it work?
Book your free time slot. One ticket per person for everyone aged thirteen and over.
Make sure you are present at Marchantplein in the center of the Park at least ten minutes before the start of the booked time slot. Collect your free ‘Saw your own Christmas tree voucher’ here at the wooden distribution house upon presentation of your order confirmation (printed or digitally displayed).
Clear signs direct you from the center to the place where the tree can be cut down, which is about 10 minutes away by car. Along the way you will encounter traffic controllers who will only let you through upon presentation of your ticket and within your time slot. That is why we would like to ask you to arrive on time and have the receipt(s) ready. If you arrive at the checkpoint before your time slot starts, you can wait nearby until your time slot has started; you don’t have to drive all the way back to the center.
You can choose a pine tree per person. If you are with two adults and two children and you have two vouchers, you can still take four pine trees with you. Volunteers from the De Hoge Veluwe Volunteers Association are present to assist you.
You can take the pine tree home for free, only the entrance to the Park has to be paid.
