--- title: Woman Returned a Dead Christmas Tree at Costco in Viral Po description: The California Costco issued the woman a refund after she brought in her dead tree — and an onlooker was shocked. canonical: https://time.com/5099149/dead-christmas-tree/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-01-11T19:07:32.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:49:42.979Z og:title: A Woman Returned a Dead Christmas Tree to This Man's Chagrin og:description: Costco issued her a full refund og:url: https://time.com/5099149/dead-christmas-tree/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb82ce0bd8d94f202/6988f7f9fb4eac05bb895445/dead-christmas-tree.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: US-WEATHER-STORM og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: A Woman Returned a Dead Christmas Tree to This Man's Chagrin twitter:description: Costco issued her a full refund twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb82ce0bd8d94f202/6988f7f9fb4eac05bb895445/dead-christmas-tree.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # A Woman Actually, Successfully Returned Her Dead Christmas Tree  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Jan 11, 2018 7:07 PM UTC  A woman drags a christmas tree in Brooklyn, New York on January 5, 2018. A woman drags a christmas tree in Brooklyn, New York on January 5, 2018.ANGELA WEISS—AFP/Getty Images  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Jan 11, 2018 7:07 PM UTC In case you were wondering: yes, it is possible to return [dead Christmas tree](http://time.com/5073410/viral-dad-christmas-tree-video/) to Costco post-Christmas, assuming you have the receipt and a bit of luck. That is even if the reason for the return is just that it’s no longer alive. An incredulous Facebook user [discovered this fun fact](http://abc7.com/society/woman-returns-dead-christmas-tree-to-costco-in-january/2929173/) last week when he was in line at the checkout counter behind a woman who had dragged in her holiday decor. It was Jan. 4, more than a week after Christmas, but she still made sure to get her money back for the now-deceased greenery. “If I didn’t see it, I wouldn’t believe that someone had so little moral value or lack of conscience,” Scott Bentley wrote in the photo he shared with Facebook. “Heartbreaking to think she may have needed that money so much, she lost all self respect and dignity for it.” It’s still unclear what the tree customer’s reasoning was, but according to one shopper, the [Costco](http://time.com/money/5087656/costco-rotisserie-chicken-price-deal/) staff ultimately offered up the refund. Of course, most people tend to accept that trees — once cut down for decorative holiday purposes — have a finite life span, and will toss the tree once its time is up. But others seem less willing to accept this unfortunate fact of life. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5099149/dead-christmas-tree/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5099149/dead-christmas-tree/"},"headline":"A Woman Actually, Successfully Returned Her Dead Christmas Tree","datePublished":"2018-01-11T19:07:32.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:49:42.979Z","description":"New holiday cost-saving hack?","url":"https://time.com/5099149/dead-christmas-tree/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral","christmas"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb82ce0bd8d94f202/6988f7f9fb4eac05bb895445/dead-christmas-tree.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb82ce0bd8d94f202/6988f7f9fb4eac05bb895445/dead-christmas-tree.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"US-WEATHER-STORM","caption":"US-WEATHER-STORM","creditText":"ANGELA WEISS—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5099149/dead-christmas-tree/","name":"A Woman Actually, Successfully Returned Her Dead Christmas Tree"}}]}] ```