By Virginie Boone

Like many agricultural products, Christmas trees don’t always register as something that grows on a farm, though unless you’re Clark Griswold and family trudging into the forest to find one in the wild, most of the trees we buy during the holidays have been grown and tended to by farmers, whose farms still allow for the joy of cutting a fresh tree of one’s own.

Oregon and Washington produce most of America’s Christmas trees, predominantly Douglas fir and Noble fir, as well as a few species of spruce. California’s Sierra Foothills are full of Doug fir, White fir and Red fir. National forests in California at times still offer permits to cut down your own Christmas tree, usually for about $10/tree with a limit of one permit per household.

Indiana County in southwestern Pennsylvania owns the title of “Christmas Tree Capital of the World.” The Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh says the title was given in 1956, when 700,000 trees in the county were cut down.

There, the predominant species are White pine and Scotch pine. The museum also states that most people did go into the woods like the Griswolds until the early 20th century. Christmas tree farms in Indiana County start to show up around 1918, as farmers saw an opportunity to grow a profitable crop. By 1960, 1 million trees were harvested per year in this one county alone.

However, the area has been in decline in more recent years, thanks to people preferring artificial trees and fir trees, which grow slower in Pennsylvania than in neighboring states.

Pennsylvania is also where global superstar Taylor Swift spent her early years on an 11-acre Christmas tree farm before moving to Nashville at age 14, as she memorialized in a 2019 song. In it she sings:

“In my heart is a Christmas tree farm

There’s a light in the barn

We’d run inside out from the cold

In the town, kids are dreaming of sleighs

And they’re warm and they’re safe

They wake to see a blanket of snow”

Christmas trees are also grown by pockets of farmers in Sonoma County, on former egg and poultry or apple farms in many cases.

Garlock Tree Farm on Bloomfield Road in Sebastopol was an egg farm until 1966, when Bob and Sally Garlock decided to plant Christmas trees.

Today the 10-acre spread is run by one of their kids, Keith, with his wife Becky, who grow Douglas fir, White fir, Monterey pine, Scotch pine, Cypress, Incense cedar and White spruce. By letting people cut their own and leaving a few branches at the base of each tree, new trees grow more quickly – faster than a newly planted tree, which’ll grow ½ foot to 1 foot/year. Trees can be slow to grow at first, but in their second and third decades may grow as much as 12 inches a year.

At Garlock, they also bring in trees that don’t grow as well in Sonoma County, namely Noble fir, Silver Tip (Red fir) and Nordmann fir.

The Garlocks’ other grown children, Bill and Debbie, run two nearby Sebastopol Christmas tree farms of their own, Frosty Mountain and Reindeer Ridge, respectively. Reindeer Ridge Christmas Tree Farm started in 1985 and offers 7 acres of cut-your-own as well as pre-cut trees.

Frosty Mountain started in 1985 on a 12-acre former apple farm, with an historic apple-packing barn on property that serves as both landmark and Santa’s workshop in season. After planting seedlings, it took three years for the trees to grow big enough to open the doors to the public. In addition to the trees, Frosty Mountain features a herd of goats dressed in Christmas sweaters and Santa suits.

Larsens’ Christmas Tree Farm in Petaluma started in the early 1960s on a former egg farm, which it had been since 1918. Bob Larsen planted seedlings from his neighbor, Al Anderson, who ran a longstanding Christmas tree farm at the time. Also in Petaluma, Pronzini Christmas Tree Farms, a former hay farm, has sold Christmas trees since 1963, while Little Hills Christmas Tree Farm opened in 1985 on a former poultry ranch and also has dogs, pigs, a miniature donkey and goats. Co-owner Carol Mungle’s parents have been in the Christmas tree business for 50 years; the third generation has also recently joined the family farm.

Grandma Buddies in Sebastopol was first planted in 1982 on a former apple orchard and poultry operation. A few years ago, The Pioneer Woman named it one of the best Christmas tree farms in America.

Whether you cut your own or buy one cut for you, consider supporting these family Christmas tree farms this season, another important segment of local agriculture in our community.

Image by: Frosty Mountain Tree Farm