Recycle Your Christmas Tree!

First off, we hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas weekend and spent some quality time with your families! We sure did!

And now that Christmas is over it's time to talk about what to do with your Christmas tree.

Did you know that Christmas trees are 100% recyclable? So whether you take it down the day after Christmas or leave it up until the New Year--let us haul your tree away to be recycled.

Over the next week and a half we can swing by your home, pick up your tree, and haul it out to the recycling center where the whole tree is grinded and reused. Wood chips are sent out to the Delano power plant to be used for electricity, and plant parts of the tree are grinded into mulch which is used in farm fields throughout Kern County.

So please don't dump your used Christmas tree in your back alley or in a landfill. 100% of Christmas trees can be recycled into renewable forms of energy. You can't get more environmentally-friendly than that!

Below is our pricing for the recycling pick-up service.

• Up to 8ft. trees = $20
• 8 - 10ft. trees = $30
• 10 ft. trees and up = $40

Call to schedule your pick-up today: 832-2870 or 427-7282

Happy New Year!

Caring For Your Alpine Christmas Tree

More than half of Americans put their Yule Tide spirit in full throttle right after Thanksgiving Day and purchase their Christmas tree that weekend. Sounds good to us! The sooner the better!

But how can one be sure your tree will make it to Christmas Day? Especially since once the trees are cut down they are technically dead, right?

Well, we have some helpful tips and tricks to ensure your Christmas tree lasts through Christmas Day (and even New Year’s!)

**But remember! Alpine Christmas Trees are freshly cut and delivered daily to our tree lots all over Bakersfield. Can't get any fresher than us unless you cut them down yourselves! :)

Here are some tips and tricks for caring for your Christmas tree:

• As soon as you get home put hot water in the water stand—as hot as you can get from the tap is the best.
• A little known trick is to drop an aspirin and tablespoon of sugar in your tree's water stand.
• Water your tree on a regular basis.
• Putting Christmas lights on your tree will not make it a fire hazard but here are some things that will cause your tree to catch flames:
• Open flames such as candles & fire from fireplace (keep your tree clear from both.)
• Old electrical cords that are torn and frayed can be a fire hazard (if you have these be sure to dispose of them immediately.)

Once your tree is up and properly cared for you can decorate and enjoy through December!

(Don’t forget to take a quick snap shot of your beautiful tree and submit it in our Christmas Tree Decorating Photo Contest. See this post for details.)

From the home of Ruth Craig

Location! Location! Location!

Our Alpine Christmas Tree lots are literally all over town--more than any other Christmas tree business! Take a look at our lot locations below and note the closest one to you. When in doubt, just look for our Alpine banners!

2312 Wible Road at Wilson

4000 White Lane at Akers

Corner of 24^th & Oak Street

N.W. Corner of Panama Ln. next to Kentucky Fried Chicken West of 99 Fwy.

SE Corner of Downing Avenue & Coffee Road North of Rosedale Hwy.

Olive Dr 1 block E of Fwy 99 at Olive Town Ctr by Sonic Drive-in

SW corner of Mt. Vernon & Brundage Lane at Hwy 58

Delano Chamber of Commerce – 931 High St., Delano

And don't forget your coupon!

Active 20-30 Christmas Experience

The Active 20-30 Club and Alpine Christmas Trees request your support to help give Christmas to underprivileged children in the Greater Bakersfield area. Present this coupon at any Alpine Christmas Tree lot and 10% of your purchase price will be donated directly to the Active 20-30 Club's Christmas Experience.

10% BACK TO THE CHILDREN

Thank you for your support and have a Merry Christmas!

Print this coupon picture.

Alpine Christmas Tree Decorating Photo Contest

Now, let’s have some fun! We are announcing our first ever decorating Christmas tree contest. It’s simple & fun!  This is how you can play:

1.       Pick up your Christmas tree at any of the Alpine Christmas Tree lots.

2.       Decorate your beautiful, freshly cut tree.

3.       Take a quick pic of your decorated tree and email it to us at alpinexmastrees@gmail.com. Picture submissions will be accepted between November 26 – December 16. Winners will be announced December 19th.

That’s it!

We will post your picture on our Facebook page and the picture with the most likes wins! We have tons of goodies to give to our winners (pics coming soon) so be sure to share our page with your friends so they can “like” your tree.

Don’t forget—Alpine Christmas Trees opens on Friday, November 25^th!

Print the 10% off coupon and get to your nearest Alpine lot this weekend!

Happy Thanksgiving!

34th Anniversary 10% off Coupon

Print off the picture of this coupon and take it to any Alpine Christmas Trees lot and receive 10% off any Christmas tree of your choice!

Christmas Trees Have Arrived!!

The smell of Christmas is in the air as the first load of beautiful fresh cut Christmas trees arrived at the Alpine Christmas Tree lots today.

Here is a sneak peek and a quick "hello" video from Chris Maretich!

Lots open on Friday, November 25th! See ya then!

Trees are coming--Let the count down begin!

Christmas trees are being tagged, cut, baled up, and on their way to your home. Take a look at some fun pictures below from our Oregon Christmas tree farms as we get ready to bring these big boys to their new home!

Meet Chris Maretich, owner and founder of it all! He’s also the Papa Bear (and Grandpa Bear) of the whole clan!

Several weeks before Thanksgiving we walk the rows of trees tagging the perfect ones with these pink or yellow tags. Tagging trees lets us know which ones to cut and which ones to keep on the farm so they can continue to grow for future seasons.

Special order tree for Our Lady of Perpetual Help

This beautiful Christmas tree is yellow tagged—special ordered—for the City of Delano.

Did you know we use helicopters in our Christmas tree harvest? Well we do!

This type of helicopter is used to carry bundles of trees in slings from the farm to the landing where they are baled and ready for delivery.

Here are some pictures of our helicopter in action. Enjoy!

Pretty cool, uh? We think so! Betcha’ did think all this work went into freshly cut Christmas trees.

The trees are coming. Let the count down begin!







Real Versus Fake

100% real Grand Fir Christmas tree from our friend, Mr. Jim Fox!

It’s right about now that the stores put away the left over Halloween décor and costumes, and before we can even say “Happy Thanksgiving!” the Christmas merchandise is stocked on the shelves.  So it seems to be a perfect time to address a very sensitive subject for our family—artificial Christmas trees.

Now, we’re not saying those that have ever bought, or plan to buy, a fake tree will be eternally shunned from our family.  We just think there are a few Christmas tree myths that we need to bust as we approach the Christmas season.

Myth #1. Artificial trees are better for the environment.

                Wrong! Artificial trees are made from plastic and whether it’s today or ten years from now, there will be a time when the trees will disposed of — adding unnecessary plastic waste to our landfills. Also, plastic trees contain polyvinyl chloride, which is a plastic that contains numerous cancer-causing carcinogens and are extremely dangerous during production. And don’t get us started on all the lead that’s in plastic trees and its repercussions. Yikes!

Myth #2. Real trees are bad for our environment because they are cut down.

                Wrong! Each acre of Christmas trees provides the daily oxygen requirements for 18 people. And for every tree that is cut down, 2-3 seedlings are planted in its place. This means Christmas tree farmland is constantly being cultivated to grow more trees. You can’t get more environmentally friendly than planting thousands of trees every year!

And every year trees are recycled for a number of purposes. (Stay tuned for a future post on how trees are recycled in Bakersfield!)

Myth #3. Buying an artificial tree is an economically sound purchase.

                If you think buying a fake tree is a smart decision economically, you are WRONG! The majority of artificial Christmas trees are made in Korea or China. So if you buy a fake tree your dollars are going overseas. Buy a real tree and support American farms, American families, American businesses! And may we add, now is not the time to skimp on our national economical state.

So let’s keep it “real” here—buying a fake tree is not the better option.

And besides, when you purchase a tree at a local Christmas tree lot (preferably an Alpine Christmas Tree lot) you don’t just go for the tree—you go to the lot for the whole experience of picking out your family tree, saying hi to Santa, getting a cup of hot chocolate--the whole sha-bang! 

Keep this tradition alive. And if it’s not a Christmas tradition for your family, well 2011 is a good year to start!

We’d love to hear from you! Do you prefer a real tree or a fake tree? And why?

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.

Welcome to our new blog!

Hello! We are the Maretich family and welcome to our company blog for Alpine Christmas Trees. First and far most we are a family company. Say hello to our family!  You’ll find each of us at different Alpine tree lots throughout the season.

Disclaimer: We are a little behind on family pics. This one was taken a few years ago and since then our family has grown quite a bit. Stay tuned for new pictures!

For us, the Christmas tree business is 365 days a year and we love it! So in this blog you’ll find posts throughout the holiday season that are all things Christmas (yes, including Christmas trees.) But be sure to check in from time to time after the holidays and you’ll see posts on Christmas tree farming and, more importantly, our family.