Tips for choosing the perfect Christmas Tree

The centerpiece of holiday decorations is, of course, the Christmas tree. To ensure that you find that perfect farm fresh tree this season, our New Hampshire-Vermont Christmas tree growers offer these tips:

*  Determine how tall and how wide you want your Christmas tree to be before you visit your favorite New Hampshire-Vermont 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-Vermont 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.

*  To check the freshness of a tree from a retail lot, run a branch through your enclosed hand – the needles should not come off easily. Bend the outer branches – they should be pliable. If they are brittle and snap easily, the tree is too dry.

*  Involve the whole family in selecting your tree. Many of our farms offer festive activities, so choosing a Christmas tree can become a fun-filled family activity!

For more tips on selecting the Christmas tree that will be right for you, check out these guidelines from the National Christmas Tree Association.

Happy Holidays!

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

Christmas 2011 marks the seventh year the Christmas SPIRIT Foundation has delivered farm fresh Christmas trees at home and abroad to active duty U.S. military personnel and their families through the Trees for Troops program.

Christmas tree growers throughout the country, including those in New Hampshire and Vermont, donate trees and garner customer support for Trees for Troops, allowing the program to deliver some 17,000 Christmas trees each year. New Hampshire and Vermont Christmas tree growers donate 425 Christmas trees to the program each year.

For Christmas tree farms and their customers, it’s 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.

Last year, Trees for Troops delivered 17,224 trees to 59 military bases, including seven bases overseas… In 2011, Trees for Troops expects to deliver its 100,000^th tree!

You can help by visiting a participating farm – many of them have special events or sales dedicated to Trees for Troops.

Merry Christmas to all, whether you’re home for the holidays or far away.

Visit a Christmas Tree Farm and Get Festive!

Visiting a Christmas tree farm to find the perfect tree is a holiday tradition for many folks. Several of our New Hampshire and Vermont Christmas tree farms offer craft fairs, caroling, hot cocoa, and other special touches to make the process of selecting a Christmas tree a festive and fun event.

We invite you to peruse our list of NH-VT Christmas Tree farms to find the one most to your liking… whether you prefer to wander through neat rows of snow-covered fir trees to find your Christmas tree or select a Christmas tree from our farms’ on-site retail lots.

Some farms also offer Christmas tree packages, where you’ll receive a discounted stay at a local inn or hotel when you also purchase a farm fresh tree from one of our growers. Whether you’re looking for a romantic getaway at a quaint New England inn or a family outing at a larger hotel, our holiday vacation packages are a wonderful way to get into the Christmas spirit.

Happy Christmas tree hunting… and many happy returns!

Christmas Tree Trivia

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 and Vermont 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, incidentally, 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 and Vermont farmers are Balsam fir and Fraser fir.

Let the Holidays Begin ~ Mail Order Season is Now Open!

Our New Hampshire and Vermont Christmas tree farms are now accepting online and phone orders! If you’re already thinking ahead to decking the halls, we invite you to order your tree, wreaths, and all you’ll need to help make the holidays merry and bright.

Our farm directory lists Christmas tree farms offering mail order sales.

Many of our Christmas tree growers sell mail order, farm fresh Christmas trees in various sizes and varieties. Shoppers may order any time and select a shipping date close to the holidays for hassle-free holiday shopping. We'll 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 evergreen clippings and decorated to your liking, as well as beautiful ornaments, helpful tree accessories, and other greenery. 

Let the holidays begin!

A New Season ~ A New Look

Here in the north country of New Hampshire and Vermont, the air is turning crisp, frost is setting in some evenings, and our New Hampshire and Vermont Christmas tree farmers are looking ahead to the hustle and bustle of the holiday season!

We’ve given our New Hampshire-Vermont Christmas Tree Association website a new look and updated features. So, it’s now easier than ever for you to browse our list of Christmas tree farms in New Hampshire and Vermont – whether on your home computer or your smart phone. You’ll find information about all of our member farms, the Christmas trees and other holiday items they offer, and the activities available at the farms during the holidays and beyond.

We hope you’ll use our site to plan your visit to one of our beautiful Christmas tree farms this season or to find a farm to place your online Christmas tree order.

Sharing the tricks of the tree growing trade

Longtime Christmas tree grower Nigel Manley, of The Rocks Estate in Bethlehem, NH, attended his 15^th National Christmas Tree Association conference this summer, gleaning information on the latest tricks of the Christmas tree growing trade. Nigel, who is the NCTA director for the New Hampshire-Vermont Christmas Tree Association, 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 he picked up from this year’s convention – which he shares with his NH-Vermont associates – 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 farmers from New Hampshire and Vermont 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 member farmers,” 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.”