O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum, please don't start on fire.

'Tis the time of year when that lush, green Christmas tree you bought begins to make Mrs. O'Leary's lantern look like a pile of wet socks. You don't want to look at the thing wrong, for fear it will combust. Removing ornaments becomes a game of Operation: Nick the tree with your tweezers, and a whole branch could fall to the floor, needles shattering like broken glass.

Luckily, if you live in Bismarck, someone is coming soon to take the tree to the landfill. City crews will begin picking up the trees Tuesday and will continue to do so through the second week of January. Leave the tree - sans lights and ornaments - on the curb, and it will be whisked away.

"We'll see a lot of them out this week, but we ask people to hang on until the third of January," Galen Bren, recycling specialist for the city's public works department, said. "I know people are thinking about taking them out now that Christmas is over, but I wish they'd hold off on it."

Bren said crews will haul away at least a few thousand trees, which will be taken to the landfill and ground into mulch. The recycled trees get sold for use in many landscaping projects. Unsold portions get used at the landfill for erosion control and grass composting.

In Mandan, one needs to be more involved in the recycling process. City crews will not pick up trees. The trees can be dropped off at grass-collection sites, where the city forester will gather and grind them, or at the landfill, which charges $2 per tree. Trees must be left at the collection sites no later than Jan. 16.

(Reach reporter Tony Spilde at 250-8260 or tony.spilde@;bismarcktribune.com.)