Turn your Christmas trees into snacks for goats with the Philly Goat Project

Live Christmas tree donations will help feed the four-legged friends with the Philly Goat Project throughout the winter months.

Cory Sharber

December 29, 2024

(Jessica Kourkounis/Courtesy of Philly Goat Project)

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For those wrapping up their holiday seasons, the Philly Goat Project is looking to keep the gift of giving going with the Tree-Cycle Festival across three days in January.

Once families get done removing decorations from their live Christmas trees, they can be brought to the Philly Goat Project to be turned into treats for their four-legged pals, as well as wood chips that will be used to cover trails in parks and aid community gardens.

Executive Director Karen Krivit, also the organization’s “Goat Mom,” said despite the festival’s name, you don’t need a tree to partake in the events.

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“We count people not trees,” Krivit said. “It’s a sustainability festival … We have a few thousand people come and enjoy the festivities and make themselves at home.”

Krivit said the goats eat roughly 600 trees each season. Leslie Jackson, the organization’s operations director and “folks herder,” is hoping donors bring 2,000 trees to suffice the animals’ appetites.

“Having something nice and beautiful and green to eat when it looks brown all around is really, really good for the goats,” Jackson said. “So we can give them delicious, green things throughout the season all the way up until May.”

The festival will also give the public some rare time the group allows people to feed the goats directly. On top of that, attendees will get to stay warm with free hot cocoa and s’mores.

“It’s just a festival of love and joy and celebrating what our mission is, to bring people together in nature and build community,” Krivit said. “This whole event is a festival of community and sustainability together and we have so much fun.”

A suggested donation of $20 for those planning on donating their trees will go toward programming put on by the Philly Goat Project in 2025, including monthly events for people with special needs.

The Tree-Cycle Festival will take place across three days from noon to 3 p.m. Here’s the scheduled dates and locations:

Saturday, Jan. 4, 2025 (Rain date: Jan. 5) – The Farm at Awbury Arboretum
Saturday, Jan. 11, 2025 (Rain date: Jan. 12) – The Farm at Awbury Arboretum
Saturday, Jan. 18, 2025 (Rain date: Jan. 19) – Laurel Hill West Cemetery

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