I have two words for you: Tree Bag.
I don't believe DH and I have had a tree up this late in the season (we like to get it down no later than first couple of days in January, but this year, we were a week later than that
For about $1.99, the place we buy our tree from has a plastic "tree bag" which doubles a as a tree skirt (although we have a really cute tree skirt we throw on top of it. Basically, it is a giant, giant Hefty bag. No (or very little) mess from the d*** needles, lol.
Anyhoo, this is the second year we got it and we love it
One more tip for you: if you have the small Christmas lights, don't bother taking them off. I've bought them full price for $1.62 at Target, and for much less when I've gotten them on clearance. Every year except for one, I have taken the Christmas lights off, but one year I didn't, and it saved a lot of effort and scratched arms and hands.