New Hampshire Christmas Trees

Keeping your Christmas tree farm fresh

2011-12-19T06:37:00.001-05:00

Once you’ve selected your farm fresh Christmas tree from your favorite New Hampshire Christmas tree farm, there are a few things you can do to keep it fresh and fragrant through the holidays. When a Christmas tree is cut, more than half its weight is water, so much of keeping your tree happy involves making sure it’s able to take in the water it needs. Here are some tips for keeping your Christmas tree farm fresh!

* Before you set your tree up, cut the bottom ½-inch from the trunk. Then place your Christmas tree in water.

* Make sure your tree stand is the right size for your tree – and that it can hold plenty of water in the reservoir. Christmas tree stands should provide a quart of water per inch of stem diameter.

* Check the water level regularly to ensure the base of the tree is submerged.

* Keep your tree away from heat sources like fireplaces and radiators to prevent excessive drying.

* Use Christmas tree lights that produce only low heat to prevent drying. Lights should be inspected prior to use and replaced if they are worn. And they should always be turned off when you’re leaving the house or going to bed!

* When you’re ready to bid adieu to your Christmas tree after the holidays, check with your local transfer station on recycling options. Christmas trees should never be burned in a wood stove or fireplace, as they create creosote and can lead to a chimney fire.

For more tips on keeping your tree farm fresh, visit the New Hampshire Christmas Tree’s tree care page.

From our farms in New Hampshire, we wish you a very Merry Christmas!

The Winter Wonderland of New Hampshire Christmas tree farms

2011-12-12T15:09:00.000-05:00

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas in New Hampshire, with frosted mountains, snowy fields, and Christmas decorations twinkling from the windows. And there’s still time to find the perfect Christmas tree at a New Hampshire Christmas tree farm!

If you haven’t had the chance to visit your favorite New Hampshire Christmas tree farm yet, don’t fret – many of our farms are open right through Christmas Eve! Some even offer overnight deals in collaboration with area inns and hotels – so you can come for the day, or for the weekend!

With row upon row of beautifully shaped, carefully tended Christmas trees lining the fields, shops featuring handmade wreaths and unique holiday gifts and decorations, and plenty of festive activities, our Christmas tree farms offer up plenty of Christmas spirit.

To find the right New Hampshire Christmas tree farm for you and your family to visit this season, and to check hours of operation, we invite you to check out our interactive map.

Merry Christmas to all!

Dec. 10th deadline for mail order Christmas trees!

2011-12-05T06:27:00.002-05:00

We know the holidays are hectic for many people, and our New Hampshire Christmas tree growers are here to make the season easier for you! It takes only a few minutes to order a farm fresh Christmas tree, which will arrive fragrant, beautiful, and full of holiday spirit in your home.

To ensure delivery in time for trimming, however, please place your order by December 10^th if you live outside the New England region! Those within New England should order by December 15^th to ensure pre-Christmas delivery!

Our Christmas tree farmers cut mail order trees fresh and pack them in wax-lined cartons to keep them fresh and fragrant en route to your holiday home. To select a New Hampshire Christmas tree farm offering mail order trees (and wreaths, ornaments, decorations and more!), please peruse our mail order page.

If you miss the ordering deadline… well, what a terrific excuse to visit one of our beautiful Christmas tree farms! Many farms remain open right through Christmas Eve. To find a New Hampshire Christmas tree farm near your favorite place and learn more about what our Christmas tree growers offer, check out our interactive map.

Merry Christmas!

Wishing you a GREEN Christmas!

2011-11-28T15:07:00.003-05:00

You’re probably dreaming of a White Christmas – and we are too! But here are a few eco holiday tips from our New Hampshire Christmas tree growers to help you also make your holidays GREEN:

* If you’re reading this, you’ve probably already taken the first step toward an environmentally friendly holiday by selecting a real, farm fresh Christmas tree. If you’d like to read about the benefits of a real tree (and the dangerous pitfalls of artificial trees), we encourage you to check out this link from the National Christmas Tree Association.

* Handmade ornaments are another green holiday tradition. Cut paper snowflakes from colorful recycled paper, use craft paint and festive ribbon to decorate pine cones, tie sweet-smelling sticks of cinnamon with holiday ribbon to make pretty ornaments, save old Christmas cards to cut into shapes for tree ornaments or gift tags, string popcorn and cranberries and dried apples into garlands…. The possibilities are endless!

* If it’s time to replace your Christmas tree lights, look for LED strands. They use up to 90 percent less energy and last up to a decade!

* After the holidays, check with your local transfer station or a New Hampshire Christmas tree farm to see if there are Christmas tree recycling programs in your area. Recycled Christmas trees are put to use in a variety of ways, from helping to rebuild coastline and restoring sand dunes to improving fishing areas in New England and providing wildlife habitat. Visit the National Christmas Tree Association website to learn more about how recycled Christmas trees help the environment.

* Trees may also be chipped for mulch or composted. Evergreen trees should NOT be burned in the woodstove or fireplace, as they may contribute to creosote buildup and increase the risk of a chimney fire.

May your days be merry and bright, and may all your Christmases be white… and green!

Decking the Halls

2011-11-21T20:35:00.000-05:00

Our New Hampshire Christmas tree farms are not ALL about farm fresh trees… Christmas tree growers throughout the state also offer fresh, fragrant, handmade wreaths, along with kissing balls, garland, one-of-a-kind gifts from local artisans, and whimsical holiday ornaments.

In short, you can find just about everything you need to make the holidays merry and bright at a New Hampshire Christmas tree farm!

Wreaths are typically made on site, using greens leftover from the process of growing and harvesting Christmas trees. These traditional holiday accessories range from simply plain to creative and festive decorations ranging from elaborate bows to natural adornments like pine cones and berries.

So, whether you’re shopping for your tree at a New Hampshire Christmas tree farm this season, or on one of our farms’ online shops, we invite you to think beyond the tree – and discover what else your favorite tree farm has to offer.

Happy Decorating!

Choosing the perfect farm fresh Christmas tree

2011-11-15T06:43:00.000-05:00

A farm fresh Christmas tree, grown with care and expertise at a New Hampshire Christmas tree farm is the perfect start to your holiday decorating. With Christmas tree season now upon us, we offer the following tips for choosing YOUR perfect tree:

* First, make sure you know how tall and how wide you want your Christmas tree to be before you visit your favorite New Hampshire Christmas tree farm. It’s often hard to picture the room you’ll place your Christmas tree when you’re in a field surrounded by beautiful firs.

* Once you’re at the farm – either in the field or at the retail lot – make sure you measure your selected tree to ensure it is the size you want! (This may sound simple, but many a tree trimmer has had to lop off a chunk of tree top to make a Christmas tree fit in the living room!)

* New Hampshire Christmas tree farmers grow a variety of tree types, from the most common Balsam and Fraser firs to the more unusual Korean and Canaan firs and other species. Different types of trees have different qualities, so check with the staff at the Christmas tree farm, or visit the National Christmas Tree Association website http://www.christmastree.org/types.cfm before you go, to find out which tree type is best for you.

* Let the whole family join in the fun of choosing the perfect tree! Many New Hampshire Christmas tree farms offer refreshments, gift shops, and other activities on the farm, so you can create a day of family fun around bringing your tree home.

You can find more ideas from New Hampshire Christmas tree growers at our website, where we have more tree selection tips and a tree care page with tips for keeping your Christmas tree fresh through the season.

Happy Holidays!

Trees for Troops – Delivering holiday cheer, one Christmas tree at a time

2011-11-08T14:51:00.000-05:00

This holiday season, Trees for Troops hopes to deliver its 100,000^th farm fresh Christmas tree to a military family. Founded in 2005 as a program of the Christmas SPIRIT Foundation, Trees for Troops collaborates with Christmas tree growers throughout the United States to provide real Christmas trees to United States military personnel stationed in the U.S. and abroad.

Many of our New Hampshire Christmas tree growers donate farm fresh trees to Trees for Troops and accept donations to the program from customers. Some 700 tree farms throughout the country allow Trees for Troops to deliver about 17,000 Christmas trees to U.S. troops each year. Last year, Trees for Troops delivered 17,224 trees to 59 military bases, including seven bases overseas.

For Christmas tree farms and their customers, Trees for Troops offers a way to spread a little holiday cheer – one Christmas tree at a time – and to thank the men and women in our country’s armed services, who often spend the holidays away from home and family.

You can help by visiting a participating farm – many of them have special events or sales dedicated to Trees for Troops. To learn more about the program please visit the Trees for Troops website.

Happy holidays to all of you – wherever you may be.

Swing into the holidays with a visit to a New Hampshire Christmas tree farm!

2011-10-24T14:23:00.000-04:00

New Hampshire’s many Christmas tree farms are like scenes from a Christmas card – rolling hills lines with perfectly shaped fir trees, snow-covered landscapes, and festive dashes of holiday color.

Many of our farms offer special touches like caroling, visits from Santa, rich hot cocoa, and horse-drawn sleigh rides to provide the perfect scene for finding a perfect Christmas tree. As the holidays near, we invite you to explore our list of New Hampshire Christmas tree farms to find the place where you’ll get YOUR Christmas tree this year!

There are several farms throughout the state where shoppers can meander through snowy fields to find their own perfect tree to harvest, or simply select one from the farms’ on-site retail lots. Many of our farms also sell holiday wreaths and garland, Christmas decorations, and unique gifts.

Some farms also offer vacation packages that include a Christmas tree from a local tree farm and lodging at a selection of area inns and hotels. Whether you’re looking for a romantic getaway at a charming New England inn or a family outing at a larger hotel, this is a wonderful way to get into the holiday spirit!

With so many wonderful options, we know your trip to a New Hampshire Christmas tree farm this season will yield a fantastic tree for trimming and lasting Christmas memories for years to come!

Christmas Tree Trivia

2011-10-18T14:59:00.000-04:00

Have you ever wondered how long it takes to grow a Christmas tree? Or when the tradition of hauling an evergreen inside during the darkest days of winter started? As New Hampshire Christmas tree farms prepare for the upcoming holiday season, we share some Christmas tree trivia...

The first record of a decorated Christmas tree comes from 500 years ago! Local merchants in Latvia decorated a tree in 1510 with artificial roses and danced around it before setting fire to it. (Today, of course, Christmas tree decorations are much more varied, and we leave the tree up to admire it and celebrate the season for much longer!)
During the 1600s, Christmas trees were popular in Germany and were often decorated with apples.
Americans caught onto the tree craze in the 1800s, and by the 1850s, Christmas trees were being sold commercially in the United States. Initially, these trees were cut from forests, but in 1901, the first Christmas tree farm was started in New Jersey. Today, some 30 million farm fresh Christmas trees are sold each year in the United States.
In 1853, President Franklin Pierce, who hailed from New Hampshire, brought the first White House Christmas tree to the Capital.
Today, Christmas trees are grown on farms in every state, translating to some 15,000 Christmas tree farms, 350,000 acres in production, 350 million trees currently growing, and more than 100,000 local jobs! (Artificial trees, conversely, are generally produced in China and other Asian countries, using harmful heavy metals and petroleum products.)
For every farm fresh Christmas tree harvested during the holiday season, tree growers plant 1 to 3 seedlings the following spring.
It takes those seedlings several years to make it to Christmas tree height – an average of seven years.
The most common types of Christmas trees grown by New Hampshire farmers are Balsam fir and Fraser fir.

Mail order NOW open!

2011-10-03T11:37:00.000-04:00

Our New Hampshire Christmas tree farmers think about the holidays year-round. We know some of you are already thinking ahead to decking the halls, too, and we invite you to place an order now for mail order Christmas trees, wreaths, and all you’ll need to make your holidays merry and bright!

Many of our Christmas tree growers sell mail order, farm fresh Christmas trees in various sizes and varieties. Shoppers can order any time and select a shipping date close to the holidays for hassle-free holiday shopping. Our farmers will pack your farm grown tree in a special carton to preserve freshness and that wonderful fir tree fragrance.

Our farms also sell handmade wreaths, crafted from fresh fir clippings and decorated to your liking, as well as beautiful ornaments, helpful tree accessories, garlands, and more!

To find a New Hampshire Christmas tree farm offering mail order sales, please check out our farm directory.

New Tricks of the Christmas Tree-Growing Trade

2011-09-08T09:20:00.003-04:00

New Hampshire Christmas Tree Promotion Board Chairman Nigel Manley attended his 15^th National Christmas Tree Association conference last month, gleaning information on the latest tricks of the Christmas tree growing trade. Nigel, who manages The Rocks Estate in Bethlehem, was one of more than 400 Christmas tree growers from around the United States, Canada, Mexico, and England to attend the convention in Ohio.

Among the tidbits Nigel picked up from this year’s convention – which he shares with his New Hampshire Christmas tree-growing colleagues – were ways to use social media and other new technology to boost marketing efforts, the latest news on the national Trees for Troops program, and information on growing the increasingly popular West Virginia Balsam (also known as the Canaan Fir).

“Only a few growers from our region are able to attend the national convention, so my role is to bring home the latest techniques for everything from pest control to marketing to share with our members,” said Manley. “The information shared at the convention is important to our local Christmas tree growers. The impact for our local growers learning about these things is huge.”

Summer Shearing

2011-07-18T14:36:00.000-04:00

For most folks, thoughts of Christmas and Christmas trees melt away with the snow of winter. But summer is a busy time for New Hampshire Christmas tree farmers.

During July, many of our farmers are spending long days hand pruning and shearing thousands of trees. Farm grown trees are pruned (selectively removing whole branches and twigs) and sheared (trimming the tips of branches) to fill in gaps and shape the trees into the classic Christmas tree form.

This work is labor intensive, as it must be done each year, by hand, and within a limited time frame. So while you won’t be ready to trim your tree for another four or five months, our Christmas tree farmers are hard at work trimming THEIR trees this summer!

'Tis the Season - Of Planting and Pruning

2011-05-25T14:10:00.002-04:00

Christmas tree farmers throughout New Hampshire have been busy the past few weeks planting fir tree seedlings and fertilizing endless rows of growing Christmas trees.

It takes several years – and hours of hands-on care – for a tiny seedling, like the one shown in this photo, to grow into someone's perfect Christmas tree. While most folks don’t consider a tree until it’s time to select one for holiday trimming, New Hampshire Christmas tree farmers spend much of the spring and summer tending to their crops – from planting the seedlings to top pruning and side pruning each tree by hand later in the summer.

With many thousands of acres throughout the state dedicated to growing Christmas trees, and about 1,000 trees planted per acre – well, that’s a lot of tender loving Christmas tree care!

Caring for your Christmas tree

2010-12-15T05:54:00.002-05:00

You've found a beautiful tree and brought it home to deck the halls - here are a few tips for keeping your tree fresh and fragrant through the holiday season:

If you haven't yet set your tree up, make a fresh cut, removing the lower 1/2-inch of the trunk.
Whether your tree has been set up for weeks or you're just putting it in the stand now, WATER is the key to keeping your Christmas tree fresh! Check your tree stand regularly to ensure the bottom of the trunk is submerged.
As much as possible, keep your Christmas tree away from radiators, fireplaces, and other sources of drying heat.
For more tips, visit our tree care page.

Happy holidays from the New Hampshire Christmas tree growers... May your days be merry and bright, and may your farm fresh Christams tree contribute to your holiday joy!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

2010-12-10T14:06:00.000-05:00

There's something magical about snow in December, and much of New Hampshire is now blanketed in beautiful, wintry white. Fat snowflakes falling in whispers to the ground make a visit to our of our New Hampshire Christmas tree farms even more special.

So if you haven't found your perfect tree yet, visit one of our farms for a fresh, fragrant, beautiful Christmas tree! Some farms also offer beautiful handmade wreaths and special treats like horse-drawn wagon rides and hot cocoa or cider, and many are open right through Christmas Eve. To find a farm and check days and hours of operation, please visit our Christmas tree farms map.

Last chance to order your tree!

2010-12-06T06:35:00.001-05:00

Christmas is just two weeks away, but there’s still time to order a picture-perfect tree from a New Hampshire Christmas tree farm – if you do it soon! To ensure you have your tree to trim before the big day, you must place your order – online or via phone – by December 10th if you live outside of New England. Those within the New England region should order by December 15th.

Mail order Christmas trees are cut fresh and packed in wax-lined cartons to keep them fresh and fragrant en route to your holiday home. Find a New Hampshire Christmas tree farm that offers mail order trees on our mail order page.

We know there are plenty of last-minute shoppers out there. If you don’t get your tree order in on time… well, what a great excuse to visit a beautiful New Hampshire Christmas tree farm! Many farms remain open right to Christmas Eve. For more information on individual farms and their hours and dates of operation, visit our New Hampshire Christmas tree farms map.

Happy Holidays!

Accessorizing for a Happy Holiday

2010-12-01T13:54:00.000-05:00

For New Hampshire Christmas tree farmers, this time of year is really all about the trees… which is why many of our farms offer a wide array of accessories to help you trim the tree with ease. For starters, we offer a tree stand that some have dubbed “the marriage saver.” It consists, simply, of a large water reservoir, four sturdy legs, and a metal spike that holds your tree securely in place (make sure you get your tree drilled at the farm if you want to use this magical stand). It’s easy to set up year after year – no tipping, no tying the tree to the wall, no fuss! Tree farms offer saws, watering spouts, and other helpful items to make your holidays hassle-free.

Your favorite New Hampshire Christmas tree farm may also sell uniquely pretty ornaments for trimming your tree. This year the New Hampshire Christmas Tree Promotion Board is offering its 16th annual pewter ornament, depicting Father Christmas himself carrying his farm fresh tree home. There are plenty of other ornaments available from New Hampshire Christmas tree farms, too, from whimsical snowmen and Santas to hand-painted glass orbs depicting snowy New Hampshire Christmas scenes. Many gift items and decorations available at tree farms are made locally by area artisans.

Finally, don't forget your wreaths, garlands, and - of course - the tree!

Tips for a Green Christmas

2010-11-27T14:57:00.003-05:00

Looking for ways to celebrate the season while being gentle to the environment? By choosing a beautiful, all natural, sweet-scented farm fresh Christmas tree, you’re off to a good start! But what you put on your tree – and what you do with your tree after the holidays – is important, too.

Handmade ornaments can be both eco-friendly and fun for the whole family. Here are a few ideas for making your Christmas merry and GREEN:

• Cut paper snowflakes from textured, recycled paper.
• Collect pinecones and decorate them with craft paint and colorful ribbons.
• Group sticks of cinnamon and tie with festive ribbon to make pretty ornaments that smell wonderful.
• Save old Christmas cards and cut them into shapes for hanging on the tree or using as gift tags.
• Return to the old tradition of stringing popcorn, cranberries, and dried apples into garlands.
• Use cookie cutters for holiday shapes and make salt dough or gingerbread cookies to hang from the tree.
• If it’s time to replace your Christmas tree lights, look for LED strands, which use up to 90 percent less energy and last up to a decade.

After the holidays, check with your local transfer station or a New Hampshire Christmas tree farm to see if there are Christmas tree recycling programs in your area. Recycled Christmas trees are put to use in a variety of ways, from helping to rebuild Louisiana coastline and restoring sand dunes in Alabama to improving fishing areas in New England and providing wildlife habitat for various species around the country. Visit the National Christmas Tree Association website to learn more about how recycled Christmas trees help the environment.
Trees may also be chipped for mulch or composted. Evergreen trees should NOT be burned in the woodstove or fireplace, as they may contribute to creosote buildup and increase the risk of a chimney fire.

Decking the Halls… and Doors, Railings, Windows and More!

2010-11-21T19:38:00.001-05:00

The Christmas tree is the centerpiece of a home’s holiday decorations. But wreaths – hung on doors, porch rails, or above the mantle – also add festive color and holiday joy to the cold days of winter. Many New Hampshire Christmas tree farms offer a variety of wreaths for sale – from plain to elaborately decorated, and everything in between.
Holiday wreaths are typically made on site at New Hampshire Christmas tree farms, using leftover greens – and creating jobs in the local economy. Some hold a simple red bow, while others are bedecked with pinecones, berries, and other natural adornments. Many farms even offer whimsically-themed wreaths featuring New Hampshire critters like moose and bear.

If you like to go beyond simply decking the halls, some New Hampshire Christmas tree farms also sell garlands in various lengths, for twining around lampposts, railings, and windows. Visit our map to find a link to your favorite New Hampshire Christmas tree farm and see what it has to offer, either on site or through mail order.

Happy decorating!

Choosing the Perfect Christmas Tree

2010-11-14T20:04:00.000-05:00

Your Christmas tree is the center of your holiday decorating, and by selecting a tree from a New Hampshire Christmas tree farm you’re ensuring your Christmas tree will be fresh, fragrant, and beautiful. Here are a few tips for choosing a perfect Christmas tree:

• Before you head to your favorite New Hampshire Christmas tree farm, make sure you know how tall and how wide you want your tree to be. Once you’re at the farm, be sure to measure the tree you select before bringing it home – it’ll look different in the field than it will when it’s set up in your home.

• If you’re not sure which species of Christmas tree will be best for you, learn about the different kinds of trees at realchristmastrees.org, or check with the staff at your Christmas tree farm.
• Let the whole family join in the fun of choosing the perfect tree! Many New Hampshire Christmas tree farms offer refreshments, gift shops, and other activities on the farm, so you can create a day of family fun around bringing your tree home.
Look here for more tips on selecting a Christmas tree.
And to make sure your tree stays fresh through the holiday season, follow the tree care tips here.

Spreading Holiday Cheer - Trees for Troops

2010-11-07T09:04:00.004-05:00

The holiday season is really all about giving. It was in that spirit of Christmas that Trees For Troops was started in 2005, to give a little bit of the holidays – in the form of farm fresh Christmas trees – to America’s military service men and women and their families.

Since 2005, thanks to the generous support of people like you and donations from more than 700 Christmas tree farms around the country, Trees for Troops has delivered more than 67,000 Christmas trees to military personnel and their families. Trees have been delivered to members of every branch of the military, on more than 50 military bases, in more than a dozen countries.
The trees are one way to say thank you to these folks who have dedicated themselves to serving the country, and to the military families who are often missing a loved one serving away from home at Christmas.

New Hampshire Christmas tree farmers are happy to be a part of Trees for Troops. To learn more about Trees for Troops or make a donation, please visit www.christmasspiritfoundation.org

Visit a NH Christmas Tree Farm and Find the Perfect Tree

2010-10-31T13:48:00.001-04:00

The crispness of fall may still be in the air, but Christmas is just around the corner! Now is the perfect time to plan your trip to a New Hampshire Christmas tree farm and find the perfect tree for your family.

With nearly 200 Christmas Tree farms, New Hampshire offers something for all tree shoppers – whether you want to meander the fields to select and cut your own tree or choose one from the lot, spend an hour or a make shopping for your Christmas tree a weekend excursion.

Some New Hampshire Christmas tree farms offer craft fairs, weekend lodging deals with area inns, and gift shops where you’ll find beautiful holiday wreaths, pretty tree ornaments, and unique gifts.

Check our New Hampshire Christmas tree farm map to find a tree farm near your home. Or make it a destination shopping experience – pick a farm a bit down the road and stay awhile.

Christmas Made Easy - Ordering your christmas tree and wreaths online

2010-10-25T06:16:00.005-04:00

If you can’t make it to a New Hampshire Christmas tree farm this season, don’t fret – many tree farms offer mail order Christmas tree and holiday wreath sales. Check out the NH Christmas Tree Farm Directory to find a New Hampshire Christmas tree farm that will happily send a tree or wreath right to your doorstep, whether you live in New Hampshire or across the country.

Trees are cut fresh and packed in wax-lined cartons to keep them fresh and fragrant.

Your home will be filled with the beautiful, warm scent of Christmas when your tree arrives! Wreaths are made right at the farms from fresh fir clippings and decorated to your liking.

Trees and wreaths are generally shipped via FedEx and can be ordered now for holiday delivery.

Support Local Tree Farms, Buy a NH Christmas Tree!

Christmas Tree Condos

2010-10-17T15:46:00.000-04:00

Chances are, the farm fresh Christmas tree you’ll trim this holiday season had a full and varied life before coming into your home. The green space New Hampshire Christmas tree farms provide and preserve is essential habitat for countless wildlife species.

The manager of one New Hampshire Christmas tree farm describes his crop as "revolving condos" for birds, who return year after year to build nests in the larger trees, flocking to different parts of the farm as one year's crop is cut down to make way for another.

Wild turkeys, moose, deer, bears, and countless other species also benefit from the habitat provided and maintained by tree farmers.

The neat, pretty rows of trees and preservation of open space provided by tree farms is an important part of New Hampshire's natural landscape for the people who live here and visit the state. Many New Hampshire Christmas tree farms include walking trails, and human visitors should always ask permission from the landowner before roaming a tree farm or other private property.

Trimming the Tree – A Christmas Tradition

2010-10-11T06:37:00.004-04:00

Whether your family places a star, an angel, or some other ornament atop your Christmas tree each year is part of your own holiday decorating tradition. Although the ritual of using evergreens to represent eternal life in winter is older than Christianity, the custom of decorating evergreen trees as a symbol of the Christmas season started 500 years ago and became commonplace in the United States in the mid-19^th Century.

The first record of a decorated tree is in 1510 in Latvia, where a tree was bedecked with roses, symbolic of the Virgin Mary. By the 1700s, evergreen branches were often adorned with apples, nuts, and colored strips of paper in Germany and Austria. Tree trimmers in France added lighted candles to Christmas trees.

In the 1800s, Christmas trees first appeared in the U.S., introduced by German settlers. By mid-century, trees cut from forests were being sold commercially. Fruit, nuts, toys, and glass ornaments were early popular tree decorations.

In 1848, Queen Victoria – whose mother was German – did much to popularize the decorated Christmas tree when a depiction of her gathered with her family around a tree hung with tinsel, beads, and candles appeared in the Illustrated London News (shown at right).

The first White House Christmas Tree, now a Presidential holiday tradition, was decorated in 1856 when New Hampshire’s Franklin Pierce was President.

Artificial trees first appeared in the late 1800s, and in the early 20^th century, some conservations encouraged people to use artificial trees as the natural supply of evergreen trees dwindled. President Theodore Roosevelt, a staunch environmentalist, refused to have a Christmas tree in his White House – until his sons, aided by famous conservationist Gifford Pinchot, convinced the President that when properly harvested, the cutting of Christmas trees was actually beneficial to forests.

The first Christmas tree farm was planted in 1901 in New Jersey, and during the 1930s President Franklin Roosevelt grew Christmas trees at his Hyde Park, New York, estate.

Tree trimming has evolved considerably in five centuries. With electricity, of course, came the easily lighted tree. Decorations now range from traditional tinsel, toys, and glass orbs to whimsical snowmen and Santas and ornaments depicting anything from tourist sites to cartoon characters.

Whether you string popcorn and cranberries for your tree or hang it with sparkling silver tinsel, use brightly colored lights or plain white, chances are your family has a special Christmas tree decorating tradition that brings the holiday spirit home.

Growing a Christmas Tree - Fun Facts

2010-09-16T09:32:00.015-04:00

The Christmas tree you'll trim this winter is probably older than you think. Perhaps you’ve noticed – among all those tall, full, beautiful firs – some smaller “baby” trees lined up in neat rows in the fields of your favorite New Hampshire Christmas tree farm. Those babies are actually 5 years old or older. And the tree you’ll trim this holiday season was likely planted as a seed a dozen years ago or more.

Here’s what it takes to grow a Christmas tree:

First, cones are harvested from mature trees – sometimes trees as old as half a century or more. These cones are dried and sifted to extract the seeds.

Next, the seeds are planted in soil that has been prepared with fertilizer and peat moss, much like a home gardener would ready a vegetable bed. Seeds are planted in the fall and germinate the next spring. After 3 years in a seed bed, the young seedlings are moved to a slightly larger transplant bed, which allows them room to spread their branches a bit.

When they’re 5 years old, these future Christmas trees are moved from the transplant bed and into the field, where they’ll remain in their tidy rows for the next 7 to 10 years. Every tree in the field is fertilized and hand-pruned each year to produce that perfect Christmas tree shape.

Finally, of course, your Christmas tree is cut fresh, ready for trimming and the joys of the holiday season.

Meet Dana Blais of Hidden Meadows Tree Farm in Bath

2009-11-30T06:45:00.005-05:00

Dana and Jane Blais have been growing Christmas trees at Hidden Meadows Tree Farm in Bath since 1988. Over the past two decades, the Blaises have evolved from what Dana describes as “dabbling” in growing Christmas trees into a full-time business. Here’s what Dana had to say about his work when we caught up with him in November.

How did you get into Christmas tree farming?

“I more or less started around 1985. I’m trained as a forester, and at the time I was a county forester in Coos County. There’s quite a few Christmas tree growers in that area, and I just became interested in it. So I started to dabble in it a little bit. I like the land. I like farming. One thing led to another, and now I’m basically in it full time. It’s good work. I enjoy it. I still do some forestry work, but not a whole lot.”

How did you end up in Bath?

“My wife, Jane. She just happened to have some property here when I met her. I had my Christmas trees growing in several other locations, and this property is well suited to growing Christmas trees. So, we started growing trees here also.”

Do you still have trees in other places, too?

“Actually, now I don’t. I did buy land in Lancaster this spring, and I will begin to plant [there] in the spring of 2010.”

What is the size of your farm?

“Three hundred total acres, about 40 acres in trees. We are expanding. We have about 35,000 trees here now, and I think it’ll be another 10,000 or so. And I’ll be able to plant about 15,000 in Lancaster.”

What types of trees to you grow?

“Fraser, balsam and Canaan firs. I’ve dabbled in a few so-called exotics, and I continue to do that, but those three are the basics. I’m trying Korean fir now, and I think that has some promise.”

How many trees do you sell each season?

“Right now we sell an average of about 4,000 per year. We are open for choose-and-cut. We also sell into the wholesale market – Rotary clubs, fire departments. Jane and our daughter, Heather, also make beautiful wreaths, which we sell here.”

What is your favorite part of growing Christmas trees?

“I like all of it. I do like to put trees in the ground, to plant them. But I like the whole process.”

What is your least favorite part of growing Christmas trees?

“Dealing with diseases and insects. Sometimes it’s very difficult to control. The summers of 2007 and 2008, we had a tremendous amount of precipitation, which led to a big increase in a certain root disease. We’ve started putting in some subsurface drainage. Since Fraser is the most susceptible, I’m planting balsams and Canaans in some of those places.”

What do you like to do when you’re not working?

“I like to hike. I like it here in the mountains. And I hope the Patriots make it to the Super Bowl.”

Meet Mike Ahern of Glove Hollow Christmas Tree Farm in Plymouth

2009-11-02T15:01:00.005-05:00

Glove Hollow Christmas Tree Farm (glovehollow.com) has been in the Ahern family since 1897. Fourth generation farmer Mike Ahern and his wife Karen now own and manage the 435-acre farm. Mike’s father Omer planted the farm’s first Christmas trees in 1957, and Mike and Karen’s four children, aged 1 ½ - 11 years old, also help out around the family operation. Here’s what Mike had to say about the family business when we caught up with him in October.

The farm has been in your family for a long time.

“It started off as a dairy farm. My dad planted the first trees 52 years ago, and he lived long enough to see the 50^th anniversary. When he planted the first trees, he had a construction company. He did have dairy cows, but he sold off the dairy cows and went to work for the government. He retired after 29 years working for the Sullivan County Government. We actually grew up in Unity, New Hampshire. My two older brothers and my dad would always come back and take care of the trees. And I came when I got old enough to start working, in first grade. I’ve been shearing and working on the trees since I was probably 7 years old. I’m 44 now. I just couldn’t imagine doing anything else.”

When did you take over the operation?

“When I got out of college, it was like a magnet. When I got out in 1987, the economy was probably just as bad as it is now, so it was very easy to be able to come back and take care of the Christmas trees, because there was always work to do. At that time my dad was retired and doing most of the work himself. In 1994 I signed the paperwork to own the farm. My dad continued to help all the way up to 2007 when he passed away.”

Does your family help with the farm now?

“It really is a family thing. My wife has brought in the animals that our customers really enjoy seeing – four goats, two horses, rabbits. It really adds a lot to the flavor of the farm. People see the family connection when they get here. It’s not just a business – I guess you would call it a labor of love. Our kids are working right along beside us now, even though they’re still young. They’re getting the flavor of planting trees, and hopefully it will be in their blood like it was mine.”

What else is special about your farm?

“We’re all in one location – you actually get to visit one site and see 80,000 Christmas trees. There are mountains are all around the fields. The Hobo Railroad goes right through the center of our farm. One Saturday during the season, the train actually stops and the passengers get out and cut their Christmas tree and put it back on the cars to take with them. It’s kind of neat to see the train go right through the property. We also let customers take their vehicles right into the fields. Sometimes it’s their only chance to use their four-wheel drive.”

How big is your farm?

“Right now the Christmas tree portion is 172 acres, and there’s 260 acres of forested land. Our forest land is managed by a forester that’s been working with our family since the 1970s.”

What kinds of trees do you grow?

“We grow Frasers and Canaans. And we grow Fralsam – a cross between a Fraser and a balsam. We’re in a frost pocket and often get a late frost, so we’re forced to grow late-flushing trees, which just happens to be a couple of the best trees to grow.”

How many trees do you sell each year?

“We’re in a growth stage right now. We’ve always been about 43,000 Christmas trees in the ground, so we were selling 5,000-6,000 trees per year. Now we’ve got 80,000 trees in the ground, and we’re two years away from selling about 10,000 a year. We do cut-your-own and precut. We’ve got some people that have been buying their trees here for over 30 years.”

Do you sell anything else there?

“We sell wreaths. We mostly just concentrate on the trees. We never try to make anything commercialized here. We’re trying to be old fashioned and simple, but fresh.”

How many people work at the farm?

“We have kids that started off in high school that are still working with us. They know as much about the farm sometimes as I do. We have three fulltime seasonal employees and five or six others depending on what season we’re in.”

Do you have plans for any changes at the farm?

“We just added a tree house two years ago, overlooking the farm, with electricity and an observation deck. This year we added a couple of horse stalls and a paddock. It’s something that the public will be able to visit. As we get bigger and start handling more people, a lot of our ideas will hopefully become reality.”

What do you like most about your work?

“There’s always something different to do, and I really like that. I guess the best part about growing Christmas trees is the harvest, seeing all the customers come. It makes you feel like all the hard work you put into it really pays off. It really gets you psyched up for what you’ve done and what you’re going to do every year after.”

What’s the toughest part of growing trees?

“The real test is the patience you have to have to grow a really nice tree. We generally get the trees out 8-10 years after planning. The old timers will tell you, wait an extra year, don’t push it.”

What is something about growing trees that your customers might not realize?

“I think the attitude about Christmas trees has changed a lot in recent years. There are so many cut your own operations that have popped up, and they’re teaching their customers about it first hand. People really know the value of their tree.”

Meet Bill Nichols of Nichols Tree Farm in West Lebanon and Lyme

2009-10-14T13:39:00.004-04:00

Bill Nichols and his wife, Srimalai, of Nichols Tree Farm have been growing Christmas trees for 40 years. They planted their first trees in 1969 on a 76-acre property they purchased after Bill got out of the Army. He was stationed for a time in Thailand, where he met Srimalai.
The Nichols’ operation now encompasses some 2,700 acres, a retail Christmas tree location in West Lebanon and a choose-and-cut outfit in Lyme, maple sugar operation, and firewood and timber production. We caught up with Bill in early October, as he was gearing up for the tree selling season. Here’s what he had to say.

How did you get started growing Christmas trees?
“It was kind of a high school age dream. I used to work in the woods when I was in high school. I recall having a discussion with one of the guys that I was working under, running survey lines out in the woods on some of the property that I now own, and I asked, ‘If you want to work out in the woods and make a living, how much land do you need?’ He said you probably need about 1,000 acres. I asked, ‘What’s the best way to get money off that?’ And he said Christmas trees and maple syrup, probably.”

That sounds like a lot of work.
“Oh, yeah. You can’t say I don’t work.”

Do you still do the maple sugaring, too?
“Yeah, I do a little bit of that. We sell a fair amount. We do 200-400 gallons a year.”

How much land did you start with?
“The house that we bought in ’69, there was 76 acres with the house. Cost me $23,000. I got my money back on that property. Actually, I’ve gotten my money back on most all the property I’ve bought. But most of it has been sweat equity. A lot of firewood. I work pretty late a lot of nights splitting firewood. The original property that we had, I sold off 50 acres of that. I had my sugarhouse there, which I kept, along with 26 acres of that property. There’s just a few Christmas trees on that.”

What kinds of Christmas trees do you grow?
“Mostly balsam and Fraser fir. We used to grow some of the other – spruces, Scotch pine, a little bit of Douglas fir – but all of those other things have not been profitable. They used to sell a lot better than they do now. We’ve got about 10 different farms. Some of them aren’t too big. Others are fairly good sized. The smallest acreage of Christmas trees is probably a couple of acres, and the largest would be about 60 acres of Christmas trees.”

How many trees do you sell in a typical year?
“There really isn’t a typical year. We planted land as it became available or we made it available. Right now we’re at a fairly low production. We’ll probably only do about 8,000 or so this year. Three years ago we did about 14,000. Three years from now we’ll be up around 20,000. We’ve planted a lot of trees in the last five years, so we have a lot of stuff coming in. We’re going to start scaling back. Next year will be the last year that we plan on doing much planting. I’m getting a little old – I’m 63. It’ll take 10 years to get those trees we plant next year.”

How many people do you have working there?
“A lot of my wife’s relatives from Thailand work as legal non-immigrant farm labor. We normally start bringing them in in April for planting, and they go home in December.”

What’s been most enjoyable in your work?
“I find it very rewarding when everything is going good, which is mostly dependent on labor issues. Anybody that’s running a business will tell you that one of the biggest headaches is managing your people and getting good production out of them. And when everything goes good, it’s nice. The business if fun when everything goes smoothly.”

What is something your customers might not know about growing Christmas trees?
“Most people don’t realize the work that goes in it. They think you just stick a tree in the ground and a few years later you cut it and sell it. But you have to take care of every tree every year – fertilize, weed control, mow the grass, shear the trees, watch out for insects, drought, disease.”

Do you ever have any time off?
“I do a little fishing sometimes. I used to do a little hunting, but the hunting conflicts with the harvest season. I relax when I have the time I guess.”

2009-05-13T13:27:00.004-04:00

After the year’s harvest of Christmas trees is cut and carted away, tree farms continue to provide open space for the aesthetic enjoyment of people and the survival of countless wildlife species.
One tree farm manager describes his crop as “revolving condos” for birds, who return year after year to build nests in the larger trees, flocking to different parts of the farm as one year’s crop is cut down to make way for another. (In this photo, New Hampshire's state bird, the purple finch, surveys his domain on a NH tree farm.) Turkeys, moose, deer, bears, and countless other species also benefit from the habitat provided and maintained by tree farmers.
Human visitors should always ask permission from the landowner before roaming a tree farm or other private property.

2009-05-07T14:22:00.001-04:00

Meet Mike Godzyk of Sibgo Tree Company

2008-12-02T13:07:00.004-05:00

Michael Godzyk took over operation of the Sibgo Tree Company (www.sibgotree.com) in Colebrook from his father in 2001. His dad started the farm with another tree farmer back in 1969. Mike manages a total area of about 200 acres and sells about 10,000 trees each year.
He’s been working on the farm and learning the trade since he was a kid, and has college degrees in both landscape nursery management and landscape horticulture. His four-year-old son is already learning how to plant Christmas trees on the farm.
Last year Mike took state champion for trees and reserved grand champion honors at the annual Big-E fair. Here’s what he had to say when we spoke September 8.

How big is the farm?
My whole farm together is about a 200-acre farm. I have about 60-70 acres of workable trees, and another 75-80 acres planted on leased property. The rest of the land is a little wetlands area and forested areas.

Does the business include anything other than Christmas trees?
I also have a side business where I do ball and burlap trees with the Premier tree spade. I do that in the spring and fall. I’m actually trying to expand a little bit. I’m doing some potted trees, and I’m going to do shrubbery and potted shrubs. It’s growing them right in the ground in a pot, so you can just take them right out when they’re ready. Some Christmas trees, but also landscape plants like maple trees.

What types of Christmas trees do you grow?
I grow mainly Fraser fir, probably 80 percent. Probably 5 percent is a Fraser-balsam cross, and the remainder is balsam fir. I grow my stuff right from seed. I’ve selected seed from certain seed trees – a bluer tree. It’ll flush a little bit later – that means it will be more disease resistant. We’re playing around with some other stuff, too, called exotics. One that I’m really interested in is a Korean-balsam cross. I have a bunch of Korean firs that are about eight years old, and I’m just going to use those as a seed orchard.

What’s the process for harvesting seeds?
You pick the cones and put them up to dry, then have to sift them through a couple of screens. Then you have to blow all the unwanted material out of it, and you’re pretty much left with a pure seed. Then you put it in the seed bed. I like to do that in the fall, because the thawing and freezing process will help stratify the seed coat.

How many people are on your staff?
My wife, Lisa, helps be quite a bit with the bookwork and whatnot. During harvest season, I’ll get about 20 guys in here at a time. Harvest season only runs about November through December. My other big time is during shearing season, when we prune the trees, and that starts in July and goes through Labor Day. I basically use high school kids for that, and I get about 10-12 guys. During the spring planting season I’ll have about five guys, and we’ll put in about 20,000 trees per year.

How many Christmas trees do you sell each year?
About 90 percent is wholesale. The other 10 percent is retail. I don’t do choose and cut, because I have two retail lots, in Manchester and Raymond. I usually sell anywhere from 10,000 to 15,000. I buy in a couple thousand trees, too.

What do you like best about running a tree farm?
Just being my own boss and being able to go out and do what I have to do to make it work. I like every part of it. I wouldn’t want to do anything else, ever. My favorite part is probably harvest season, though, when everything gets ramped right up. I get an adrenaline rush out of it.

What are some of the challenges you face as a tree farmer?
I’ve had a major moose problem on one of my lots. I’ve probably lost about $50,000 worth of product. We’ve dealt with moose problems in the past. You just expect a little bit of a loss here and there. But last year it was a major problem.

What do you do when you’re not working at growing trees?
Basically in the wintertime I plow snow and go snowmobiling, just to keep myself busy. That’s basically the only thing we can do up here.

What is something about Christmas trees that the average consumer probably doesn’t know?
The whole maintenance and care of the tree to bring it through its whole cycle: the seed selection, how to get your nursery going, the planting, the chemicals that you have to use, your licensing, the equipment that you need. From seed to get in the field is basically five years. After it’s in the field, it takes another five to 10 years.

2008-11-14T11:39:00.003-05:00

If you’re hoping for an environmentally-friendly Christmas this year, consider the following facts about trees and tree farms before you decide what to trim this holiday season:

• There are about 500,000 acres in production for growing Christmas Trees in the U.S., helping to preserve green space.
• Christmas tree farms are home to wildlife such as deer, turkey, fox and countless species of birds.
• Tree farms help to stabilize the soil and protect water supplies.
• Real Trees are a renewable, recyclable resource. Artificial trees are manufactured using harmful and non-renewable materials such as vinyl and lead.
• There are more than 4,000 Christmas tree recycling programs throughout the United States. Recycling ranges from chipping trees into biodegradable mulch for playgrounds and hiking trails to using whole trees as natural erosion control along slopes and stream banks.
• For every Real Christmas Tree harvested, up to 3 seedlings are planted in its place the following spring.
• There are about 21,000 Christmas Tree growers in the U.S., and over 100,000 people employed full or part-time in the industry.

Sources: National Christmas Tree Association and the New Hampshire-Vermont Christmas Tree Association

Meet Dan Beloin of Beloin Tree Farm

2008-11-03T11:11:00.005-05:00

Dan Beloin is a second-generation tree farmer in Colebrook. He took over the farm from his father, Eugene, in 1991 and has since sold portions of the 500-acre Beloin Tree Farm property to brothers Fernand and Ronnie. Each brother manages his own section, but they share equipment and other resources.

The Beloins have 250 acres planted in trees, mainly Fraser and Balsam firs, with a few other species also in the mix. The remainder of the property is working forest, and the family harvests some lumber each year. The farm has been in the Beloin family since Eugene purchased the land in 1948. He used to run a small dairy farm there, as well.

Two other retired brothers and a nephew also work the farm, as does Eugene, now 89 years old. A sister, Emily Langford, has a wreath business, Emily’s Wreath Factory, in nearby Northumberland, and supplies Dan’s retail stand with wreaths. (There are six Beloin brothers and seven sisters altogether!)
Dan is also a director of the New Hampshire-Vermont Christmas Tree Association. We caught up with him in July, when a series of rain storms had chased him inside:
With so many family members working together, how does that dynamic play out?

We each own our own section. We’re all growing trees, but we all share the equipment and work together. It works well. I’m the biggest mouth, I guess – I’m the salesman for all the trees. We put all our trees in under the Beloin Tree Farm name. It gives us a better selection for our customers – we have a much better inventory for the buyers.

Do you all grow the same types of trees?

Basically my two brothers grow Fraser and Balsam. I’ve expanded into blue spruce, Korean Fir, Turkish Fir, different things. I have a big retail stand, too, so I offer different things there. On the retail end it’s trees and wreaths, kissing balls, roping and that kind of thing. My sister is the wreath expert. She makes a lot more wreaths than what we can handle. She’ll buy brush from us, and we buy some of her wreaths.

How many trees to you sell on average in a year?

We’re real close to 10,000. I’d say in five years we could be closer to 20,000. We’ve got a lot of acres of 4-foot-high trees right now. Last year I shipped as far as Colorado. I have shipped to Florida before, and Texas. But 80 percent of the trees stay in New Hampshire. Ronnie has a choose-and-cut operation, because he’s right on Route 3. I have a retail outfit in Bedford and sell about two trailer loads (1,200-1,400 trees) there. The rest are all wholesale – tractor trailer loads to nurseries or whoever. Feed stores, ice cream shops.

How many people to you have working for you at the farm?

I have one full time, and he’s my nephew. So, we actually have three generations working together. My dad’s 89 and he’s still puttering, doing whatever he can. At 89 he’s a little bit slower, but he’s always doing something. When it comes to harvest, I can have as many as 15 men working.

When did you start working on the tree farm?

I can remember not being able to drag a tree but trying anyway. We had a dairy farm here up until 1982. We sold off the cows and just kept expanding on the Christmas trees.

What do you enjoy most about your work?

The diversity of the work. You don’t get stuck in a rut of doing just one thing. Sometimes you’re a mechanic, sometimes you’re an electrician, sometimes you’re whatever. There’s shearing, then there’s mowing, and then there’s spraying and fertilizing. You’re changing jobs every day, every week.

What is the most difficult aspect of the job?

The most boring job that I would rather pass off but can’t is inventory – actual flagging of the trees to know what we have for sale. The biggest challenge is maintaining a certain level of production. You can always go up. But if you start backsliding and losing customers, then try to regain them two-three years later, that’s hard. Also, dealing with the elements. This summer, totally out of my control, the rain. I’m going to have to buy fungicides for the first time in my life. My blue spruce are being attacked. Mother Nature leads and I just follow.

What do you do for fun?

Work. It’s six days a week, pretty much. It’s very time consuming. You’ve got to pay attention. The biggest slack time is after Christmas. We don’t do anything for two or three weeks, just because. I also like hunting, fishing.

Do you have any changes planned at the farm?

The biggest asset of all is knowing what’s going on in the industry, keeping up to date with new trends, new ideas, new techniques. I like to branch out a little bit to different kinds of trees, just to experiment a little bit. It’s always changing. I guess the biggest challenge is to keep up with it. It’s a continuing education. If you don’t keep up with things, you fall behind.

What is something you think the average Christmas tree buyer may not know about tree farming?

They don’t realize the amount of time involved. They think you just put it in the ground and wait ten years. I have to touch every tree at least four times a year. There’s a million touches going on every year. It’s year-round business. As soon as the snow melts, we’re out there base pruning or spraying or whatever it takes to get things going. It’s a hard business to get started. You’ve got to put in for 10 years before you get something out.

It must be nice for your dad to see the farm still in operation and still in the family.

I’m sure it puts a lot of pride in his heart. I’m not doing this because I’m stuck here. I want to be here. I suppose if I was to cut my arm, I’d probably bleed tree sap.

Meet Gordon Page Of High Meadow Farm

2008-10-08T10:44:00.016-04:00

By Meghan McCarthy McPhaul

Gordon and Carolyn Page grow Christmas trees on about 4½ acres on their Strafford property. With 10 acres in current use, including the Christmas trees, the other space is occupied by large vegetable and flower gardens and several fruit trees.

“We’re situated at the edge of the Blue Hills area. We’re up at an elevation of 860-plus feet,” Gordon says. “We’re kind of a microclimate.”

Gordon, a civil engineer who retired 16 years ago from the N.H. Department of Environmental Services, and Carolyn, a retired educator, got into Christmas tree farming as “a retirement project.” They planted their first trees in 1989 and have been selling trees since the mid-1990s.
They harvest about 400 cut-your-own Christmas trees each year.

We caught up with Gordon June 5 to talk about his retirement project. Here’s some of what he had to say:

Where did you get the idea to start a Christmas tree farm?
My wife has sister-in-law in New Jersey that did it, and we had this land. About 3 acres was in woods. The rest was a former pasture for a horse farm. It’s real flat. The land wasn’t being used for anything, so I thought this would be a fun project.
What kinds of trees do you grow?
I’ve planted quite a few varieties: Fraser fir and balsam, Canaan fir (a balsam that’s native to West Virginia). I’ve got 650 Korean firs now.
How do you decide what kinds of trees to plant?
I’ve had problems the last couple years with root rot with Fraser firs. That’s why the last couple of years I’ve switched to the Canaans and the Korean firs, which are supposed to be resistant. I have a real heavy soil here, and the Canaans do well in heavy soil.
How did you learn about tree farming?
I became active in the marketing committee for the New Hampshire-Vermont Christmas Tree Association. And I picked everybody’s brains every time I’d go to a meeting. I actually made quite a few mistakes in the beginning. The first trees I planted were white spruce, which I found out most people don’t like. I planted about 1,000 of those. Then I planted Scotch pine, which people also don’t like. I finally got to balsam and Fraser firs. We’ve put up an electric fence – the first 500 balsams I planted, the deer devastated them.
Do you have a hired staff?
It’s mainly my wife and me. The last two years we had a friend from Sacramento, California, fly out to help us. He thinks it’s great to be in the tree business at Christmas time. Generally we have one teenager helping us during the selling season.
When does your busy selling season start?
People start coming to tag trees Columbus Day weekend. We start selling Thanksgiving weekend. Carolyn makes a couple hundred wreaths and decorates them to sell. She starts about November 1st making wreaths. You’re supposed to wait until after the second frost to start cutting brush.
Have you been happy in your retirement project?
Yeah. It’s small enough so that if I want to take off and go fishing or something I can do it. There’s nothing to do in January, February and March. It’s about mid-April when you get busy. Last year we went to New Zealand for three weeks in January. We’ve done a lot of shorter trips in the summer.
What’s your favorite part about raising Christmas trees?
I like to be outdoors. That’s one of the reasons I took up civil engineering, but I found myself in an office most of the time. Seeing the people each year. Most of our customers are pretty loyal, they keep coming back. And seeing their kids grow up.
What is something that you don’t enjoy as much?
All the mowing. I try to keep the grass mowed between the trees. That keeps me busy in the summer. There’s the shearing in the spring. But I don’t really mind those things.
What is something the average Christmas tree buyer might not realize about growing trees?
I suppose that they don’t think about that the trees are giving off oxygen. And they preserve the land, which is very important, especially in southern New Hampshire.
What do you do besides raise Christmas trees?
I hunt. Both of us are involved in the Bear-Paw Regional Greenways (a regional land trust). It started out trying to get a greenway between Bear Brook State Park and Pawtuckaway State Park. They’re active in Rockingham and Strafford counties. And I’ve climbed the 100 highest peaks in New England. I’ve climbed New Hampshire’s 48 4,000-footers in winter. Carolyn’s climbed all the New England 4,000-footers. That was in our younger years. We still hike, but we’re not that serious anymore.

Meet Marshall Patmos of Farmstead Acres

2008-08-30T10:53:00.002-04:00

By Meghan McCarthy McPhaul

Marshall Patmos and his wife Pati manage 60 acres of land. Five to six acres of their Farmstead Acres property in Westmoreland, N.H., is planted with about 6,000 Christmas trees. The property also includes 35 acres of forest managed for timber sales, and open fields where a few “retired” sheep and about 25 chickens roam. When Marshall and Pati’s two daughters were younger, the family had about 30 sheep, raised for meat and wool. Both girls raised sheep for 4-H.

Farmstead Acres sells about 350 cut-your-own Christmas trees each year, mainly to local folks, but also to some out-of-staters. They grow mostly Balsam firs, but also have some Fraser firs.

Marshall is a retired UNH Extension forester, a job he held for 38 years. He was the Coos County Forester in Lancaster for 10 years, then was Chesire County Forester for the remainder of his career. He and Pati have been at Farmstead Acres about 25 years and have been selling Christmas trees for about 23 years. The first trees were hauled out by a Shetland pony pulling a tarp.

Marshall and Pati have two daughters, who help out at Farmstead Acres. Their 8-year-old grandson and 6-year-old granddaughter are also starting to get involved in the family’s tree farm, and their 6-month-old grandson may also be a future tree farmer.

We caught up with Marshall in May. Here’s what he had to say about managing the land and growing Christmas trees:

How did you get involved in Christmas tree farming?

I had worked with the industry anyway. I was very familiar with the industry. I had worked with Christmas tree growers. I was on the board of directors of the NH-VT Christmas Tree Association for years and years, on different committees. I wanted to keep the land active. I was the state Extension Christmas Tree specialist until I retired. The real way to teach people is to do it yourself.

Do you have a staff?

It’s just really family. We hire a couple of teenagers during the Christmas season. People cut their trees, and we’ll bring it down for them if they don’t want to bring it down. We also have a Christmas shop, with wreaths and decorations, cocoa and coffee and mulled cider. We sell some crafts. We get the wreaths somewhere else, but we decorate them here.

How many family members are involved?

Five or six. Our older grandson is getting excited about it, and our granddaughter. He’s 8 and she’s 6. They’re right next door. He comes and helps with the trees, and she tests the cocoa and stuff – someone has to do it!

Do you plant trees each year?

Yes, about as many as we cut.

What is your favorite thing about being a tree farmer and managing the land?

Seeing the satisfaction of the customers, bringing a little joy into a home. Producing something that a family enjoys and that’s traditional for them. That’s pretty touching. Providing them with an adventure. I enjoy seeing the land kept active, too.

What is the most challenging part of being a tree farmer?

Just doing things in a timely manner, doing things when you’ve got to do it. Even though I’m retired now, I still have a lot to do. I don’t have a lot of free time, which is OK. You’ve got to make hay while the sun shines with any agricultural crop.

What did being the Extension Forester involve?

Well, just helping people with the woodland. We’d examine property and make a recommendation for how to best manage their property, whether it was Christmas trees or woodland. I worked with Crhistmas trees, maple producers, a wide array of things. We’d work with other agencies. Education is the important part. There are also agriculture agents. That’s where 4-H is.

If you have any time after managing your land and helping care for the grand-kids, what do you do?

I’m still a licensed professional forester. I have a 1787 Cape house to keep livable. I’m also chairman of the New England Christmas Tree Alliance. We travel a little bit. I like to hunt and fish and just dub around.

Most people probably only think about Christmas trees when they’re picking one out each year to decorate. What is something about growing Christmas trees that people might not know?

A lot of people don’t realize that it takes eight to 10 years to grow a tree. You have to shape a tree every year to make it look pretty. There’s a host of insects and diseases that we have to monitor for, too. Christmas trees are a crop, just like corn, planted specifically to be grown and keep land open, provide some wildlife habitat.

Time to start thinking Christmas?

2008-08-11T12:00:00.001-04:00

It's August, but most NH Christmas Tree Farmers are planning for Christmas.