Lily Sage’s 14 goats celebrate Christmas in January.

During most of the year, the goats eat hay. But this month, the stout mammals get a chance to enjoy one of their favorite meals: Christmas trees.

“They get really excited when I bring in a Christmas tree,” said Sage, assistant director of the Philly Goat Project, an initiative in Germantown.

The Douglas Fir tends to be the goats’ preferred conifer, favored for it soft needles. But Sage said the animals will devour any kind of evergreen in about 20 minutes.

Sage and her mother, Karen Krivit, started the project with three goats in Krivit’s yard. Last year, they moved the goats to the Awbury Arboretum in Germantown. The tribe has grown to more than a dozen goats who participate in animal-assisted therapy, like yoga, and provide grazing services for overgrown land in the neighborhood.

To recycle a Christmas tree, the project asks for a $20 donation for the arboretum. The arboretum received 300 donated trees after Christmas last year. Some 500 evergreens have already come in this year so far, with two more opportunities to donate trees and feed goats still to come.

Sage estimates the goats will be gorging on the donated evergreen innards for months. The goats’ leftovers will get used as wood chips or compost at the arboretum.

“A lot of people feel really good to see their tree going somewhere where they can literally see it being used,” she said.