Trees do technically have heartbeats, or at least they have these veins inside which allow water to travel through them and keep them hydrated. You can actually listen to them with something like a stethoscope. I'd be interested to hear what these trees say.

I'm starting to suspect that the trees might contain the spirits of the people who've died to the fae spiders at Christmas. Burning the trees might allow the spirits to escape; but what happens to the trees which have died in the past?

Anyway, if anyone's interested in learning more about trees, Dame Judi Dench did a documentary about them, and she actually got to hear the 'heartbeat' of a tree. There might be clips of it on Youtube?