Christmas Tree Farming: The work behind your Christmas tradition

Christmas tree farming is vast and thriving, and it’s a business that our family takes pride in. But not many people know the year-round work that’s behind the tradition of picking out their perfect Christmas tree. That’s ok though! You can enjoy your Christmas tradition and leave the work to us. 'Cause, hey! We enjoy it!

Here are some pictures from our farm in Oregon and some interesting facts about Christmas tree farming.



C’mon! Don’t tell me this isn’t beautiful! So beautiful we had to show this picture twice. You might recognize it from our homepage.



Christmas tree farming dates back to 1901 in New Jersey, but really took off as an industry in the 1960’s. Now 98% of natural Christmas trees come from tree farms all over the United States. Pretty cool knowing that when you buy a real tree you support American businesses--and with Alpine you support a local family business--compared to artificial trees that are mostly made in Korea or China. Just something to keep in mind!



Christmas tree farming is very labor-intensive and sometimes the hardest work is done in the spring and summer. Year-round farm work includes:

· Protecting the trees from other plants and weeds

· Pruning to protect trees from disease and give desired full shape

· Protecting trees from insects and rodents that can kill trees, especially young trees

· Harvesting (Stay tuned for a post on how we harvest our trees!)

Here are some fun Christmas tree farming facts that I betcha didn’t know.

1. For every tree harvested, 2-3 seedlings are planted in its place.



2. It can take as many as 15 years to grow a tree of average retail sale height (6 feet), but the average growing time is 7 years.

 

3. There are about 15,000 Christmas tree growers in the U.S., and over 100,000 people employed full or part time in the industry.

4. There are about 1 million acres in production for growing Christmas trees. Each acre provides the daily oxygen requirements of 18 people.

Now, can you see why we love this business?! It combines a few of our favorite things—Christmas, exquisite nature, and of course, family.

So there’s a little peek into what farming life is like for us. (Let us stress the word peek.)

What do you think? Is your family in farming? We’d love to hear your comments!

*Fun facts sited from Virginia Christmas Tree Growers Association.