Apartment Rentals - as in to live there 'long term' not a vacation apartment

You can call Scenic Properties at 340-693-7777, they are the largest long term rental management company. There is also a board at Connections that has rentals, jobs, things for sale, etc. Most of the best places never make it to a posting, they go by word of mouth before they are even vacated. If you could do a short term rental at St. John Inn, Tamarind Inn, or Samuel Cottages, and wait until you get on island to rent a place that would be best. Seeing the places can be pretty important. Also you can jump right in and start networking and asking around to see if anyone knows of any open or opening apartments. The time of year will impact your selection quite a bit. August and September is when we see the most open apartments.

About Christmas tress.... some people have live trees, either the traditional type, or the potted Norther Pines (aka Charlie Brown Tree). Also see a lot of artificial and some people use Century Plants.

there are a few places on stx that sell live trees. and they go fast.

And die even faster.

You can look on Craig's List, contact a local Realtor, (BJ Harris owner of STJ Properties is great) check the message board at Connections,
or check the Tradewinds newspaper (think it's available online).

Summer/ off season months (May - October) will be better for finding shorter term rentals and have more availability. Most landlords prefer
12 month rental periods. Bring $$$$$$$ and be prepared to pay first,
last and security deposit as well as for utilities.

If you have pets, they can't travel cargo in summer months and it's harder to find rentals that allow them.

On St Thomas, Cuzzin's brings in Christmas trees- I think they are Fraser firs?- but they start the first of December and sell out within a few days. They are cut at a farm and put directly in a refrigerated container. They are fresher than most trees I bought in the states. They last for a month, although they drink water like crazy. (tu)

I don't see so many century plants since the blight that killed them off several years ago.

Please don't use century plants as Christmas trees.
They are on the endangered species list.

Buy a live Norfolk pine, use it for a few years after transplanting into a larger container and then plant it in your yard.
They do quite well here just not indoors year round.

I bring mine inside, decorate the container with foil wrapping paper decorate the tree and am good to go. The rest of the year, it's in the yard.

Please don't use century plants as Christmas trees.
They are on the endangered species list.

I wish I'd kept the one I had for several years but when I moved I really had nowhere to put it. Took me years to find one and then, right across the street, one grew super tall and one night just snapped right off and landed in the road! Pulled it over to the side and the next morning enlisted some help to carry it across. Loads of cars had pulled by in the wee hours to check it out but fortunately nobody took it before I was able to retrieve it!

I'm on my 2nd Norfolk pine in 12 years since the first one got too big to be dragging into the house. The first one goes into the ground next year and may get another year or 2 out of the 2nd one before it, too, gets planted. Happy holidays, everyone!

Happy holidays, everyone!

And many Happy Returns!

Norfolk, yeah! Not Northern Pine. I've had them several times in the past but try and plant them and they die. So I quit buying them. I've only seen Century Plants used after they were already dead and dried out first. And I don't see many of them. A friend constructed one out of bamboo this year.

Happy holidays everyone. I'm stuck in the states this year, and I sure miss home (STJ).