Here are some things you can do to recycle your Christmas tree

The presents are unwrapped, the dishes from your Christmas feast are all clean (right?) and it's time to settle in and wait for the new year.

But you know you've got to deal with that tree eventually. Luckily, there are actually more than a few ways to put that old fir to use, either for you or for local wildlife.

1. Donate your tree - the fishes will thank you

Christmas trees make great habitats for fish. Fish need cover and refuge out in the water, and the branchy tangles of a Christmas tree are perfect for this. The decomposing wood can also kickstart can serve as food for small creatures, which attract larger bait fish, which attract even larger fish, according to KeepAmericaFishing.

Two groups are providing this service to our fishy friends this year- Keep Columbus Beautiful and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Keep Columbus Beautiful will work with Oxbow Meadows Environmental Learning Center to sink the trees in their lake, providing shelter for newly hatched fish. The Corps of Engineers will do the same with West Point Lake.

You can donate your tree to Keep Columbus Beautiful at the following locations: Cooper Creek Park, 5089 Cooper Creek Parkway, Britt David Park, 5560 Armour Road, Shirley B. Winston Recreation Center, 3033 Steam Mill Road, Oxbow Meadow Environmental Learning Center, 3535 S. Lumpkin Road, and Dinglewood Park, 1660 13th St. They will be collected from Dec. 26 to Jan. 6.

You can donate to the Army Corps. of Engineers at the Yellow Jack and Sunny Point boat ramps in Georgia and at Rocky Point Boat Ramp in Alabama. They will be collected from Dec. 26 to Jan 13.

2. Set it up in your yard as an animal habitat

You can stand your tree up at the edge of your yard as a bird and animal habitat. Birds can nestle in the branches and might create a nest, and you can hang feeders around the tree to attract even more. If you lay it on the ground, it provides a great shelter for smaller critters over the winter months.

3. Use your tree to protect your outside plants

We may have had a pretty warm winter so far, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't take some precautions with your more delicate outdoor plants. You can cut the branches of your tree into little boughs and place them over your plants. The boughs will help insulate the plant and protect it from the chill - whenever it comes.

4. Slice up the trunk of the tree - you can make stuff with it

You can carve up little slices of the trunk to make all kinds of things. Wooden coasters for your drinks, little frames for drawing or painting, or anything else you might use them for. This Old House has one interesting suggestion - cutting the slices into semicircles and using them to edge a garden.

5. Mulch it, compost it, forget about it

The old standby. Christmas trees can be chipped into a great mulch for gardens or landscaping. You can take the whole thing into the chipper, but you can also trim the branches into little pieces with a knife or clippers and spread them out as-is. You can also use the tree to start a compost pile by piling up branches and needles to form a base for your compost.

This story was originally published December 26, 2017 at 7:21 AM with the headline "Here are some things you can do to recycle your Christmas tree."