In the wake of a Christmas tree shortage, north Georgia farms plan for the future while still providing Christmas memories for visiting families.
Hall County District 1 Commissioner Kathy Cooper has run a Christmas tree farm with her husband, John Cooper, for almost 40 years. It is a labor of love for them, bringing families onto their farm every holiday season to continue the family tradition of chopping down a Christmas tree. While it may look simple enough—to plant trees and sell them—there is a lot of strategy and planning that goes into the process.
Each year after the selling season is over, the Coopers dig out the stumps of trees they sold. This allows them more room to replant. The average Christmas tree takes between six and eight years to grow to the appropriate height—roughly between six and nine feet tall. That height also designates the cost of the tree, starting at $45 and moving upward to $65 on the Cooper’s farm.
Because it takes about one year for every foot a tree grows, Christmas tree selling requires an immense amount of future planning. When it comes time to replant in the early months of the year, Cooper said it is important to cover their bases.
“It takes a tree, when we plant it is in a one-gallon container, which is going to be about 18 inches tall,” Cooper said. “And it will take that tree six years to mature to sell. So we try to put back maybe a little bit more than you think was harvested.”
In years past, there has been a Christmas tree shortage due to a large number of north Georgian farms closing up shop. Cooper said that despite the shortage, her farm has been able to maintain a strong crop of trees.
“As far as the shortage, we had a really good growing season, but we have to supplement our fields with Fraser firs that we bring in from North Carolina,” Cooper said. “My son, he makes trips up into the mountains to a farm that we do business with, and they cut them for us. And we bring them back. We have to have that extra variety to be able to keep our customers happy.”
Several farms make the trek to North Carolina to obtain the most famous Christmas tree type ever sold—the Fraser fir. It is a traditional Christmas tree that only grows in some areas up north. Local farm owner Nathan Bottoms of Bottoms Tree Farms says getting in good with a farm in North Carolina is a huge boost.
“So luckily we have been one of the few tree farms and lots that were able to be already locked in with a great farm in North Carolina and have provided us—this year they provided us 100%, even more, probably 110% of the trees we ordered,” Bottoms said. “We were able to get—and therefore we still have a great selection of 9-, 10-, 11-foot Fraser firs to compensate for our trees that we grow being so short.”
Bottoms said with so many new houses having higher ceilings, the demand for taller Christmas trees continues to rise. Paired with recovering from the shortage, Bottoms hopes in the next few years, they will be able to offer a diverse lineup of trees with varying heights.
“Last year we planted a couple thousand more than we've ever planted and this year we plan to do the same thing so that hopefully by next year, we will actually get back into having 9-, 10-, 11-foot trees that are filled so that we don't have to order somebody Frasers,” Bottoms said. “Because the Frasers are very expensive for us to purchase, to get them down here, to get them set up, which in return makes the tree more expensive to the customer.”
Both Bottoms and Cooper acknowledge that their business is one of predicting the future. It is hard to know how the market may look six years down the line, but both tree farmers hope that planting extra will keep their customers coming back.
“One of the biggest slogans we got going this year is, you know, hopefully, you're gonna come out and have a Christmas tree that will last a season while making memories that will last a lifetime. And that's ultimately what we're there for.”
You can find out more about the Cooper family's Christmas tree farm by visiting their Facebook page, as well as the Bottom’s family Christmas tree farm on their website.
