What region?

Sorry, I thought that was visible in my post. I'm in Zone 8, the valley area of Los Angeles.

Try Pinus quadrifolia (Parry Pinyon). Very attractive needles, dark green with a white stripe along the length, giving an overall glaucous colour. It will eventually get larger than you want, but it is slow-growing, and won't do so for something like 30 years.

Resin

Note that if you are in L.A. you are in something like Zone 10 or Zone 11.

Here is a link that might be useful: South-West US

bboy...seems like different sources list us in different regions. The link on this site says zone 9. I don't recall where I got the zone 8 now when I made the post.

Pineresin, I looked up the Parry Pinyon and it looks like it can get very free form looking, and not Christmas-tree like. I've seen pine trees in people's yards around here that look very christmas-tree like, I just don't know what they are.

I don't think it is a pine tree you're after. Here on the forum where we are very horticulturally minded, Pine refers to just the members of the pine (Pinus) family. But pines are rarely used as Christmas trees. You may be actually looking for a spruce (Picea) or a fir (Abies). One that grows quite tall and narrow is Picea mariana, or black spruce. It ultimately gets a bit scruffy with age, but should do a good job for a number of years as it is slow-growing.

KarinL

Arizona Cypress - cultivar "Blue Ice" would be a good suggestion for a Christmas tree shape, size is supposed to be in the 15-20 ft. range, and somewhat narrow. These trees (Arizona Cypress) are native to the southwest and are grown by the thousands for Christmas trees. "Carolina Sapphire" is another very popular variety, but I think its ultimate size is around 30-40'.

I have a similar question. I have a small space and would like a Christmas-Tree-like "evergreen" that would grow to not much more than 8-10 feet tall. I understand there are a couple varieties that would retain the Christmas Tree shape and remain small........ not too wide either. Conifer? If you can tell me what I should be searching for I would appreicate it. Thanks much. Cherri

A 'baby blue eyes' spruce (a slow grower) looks like a the perfect christmas tree in my opinion. I'm not sure how it would handle a warmer climate. I also like the black hills spruce, it seems like it would make a nice Christmas Tree for many years before getting too huge. The baby blue eyes would never become too large and has a really nice blue color.

What location?

I don't think Spruce will grow in S. California, but a Serbian Spruce would make a very nice X-mas tree elsewhere. Classic tree shape.

Would a true Cedar (Cedrus) grow in S. California... some have a very nice tree shape when young I think.

I would try, cause I'm weird, Monkey Puzzle or Bunya Pine, would make an interesting "X-mas tree" ... might be painful to put on the lights thou.

Pinus cembroides and discolor will have the x-mass tree shape for very long time. I've seen some 20' that still have the shape. As resin mentioned, they are very slow growing trees

osprey