Lisa Klutts can “count on three fingers” how many times in her adult life she has had a live Christmas tree, she said. But this year she decided it “would be a treat.”
She said she appreciates the tree’s uneven limbs because the “irregularity makes it beautiful.”
“You can’t control a live tree like you can an (artificial) tree that you set up,” said Klutts, who lives in West Point and leads the Clay-West Point Growth Alliance. “This year I don’t want to control anything. I just want the tree to do its own thing. It kind of represents 2020.”
Klutts ordered her tree in September from the Episcopal Church in West Point, but most people who buy live Christmas trees do so in the two weeks after Thanksgiving every year. This year, demand for live trees is unusually high, according to representatives from the state fire coordinator’s office and some local tree vendors.
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which has limited social and business activity since March, is likely the reason more people are choosing live trees over artificial ones, said Lowell Worthey, who owns Worthey Tree Farm in Amory.
“I do think some of the 2020 things we’ve been going through has made people want to get outside more,” he said.
First-time customers
Live tree sales at the Oktibbeha County Farmers Cooperative have been “totally unprecedented” this year, garden center manager Peter Franco said.
“This is the fastest I’ve ever seen live trees sell out in the 21 years I’ve been dealing with them,” he said. “It seems like they go faster every year. Last year, we sold about 70 trees the week after Thanksgiving, (and) up until then, that was unprecedented.”
This year, the co-op sold 90 of its 125 trees by the end of Black Friday and only had 18 trees left the next day, Franco said.
Co-op customers mostly come from agricultural backgrounds and therefore are more inclined to purchase live trees, he said, but several customers told him this year was their first time buying a live tree.
In response to the increased demand, State Fire Coordinator Brad Smith issued safety guidelines last week to help prevent live trees from catching fire. Guidelines include adequately watering the tree so it does not dry out and become more flammable, keeping the tree at least six feet away from any heat source and using ornaments made of non-combustible materials.
Franco added that older, incandescent Christmas lights could pose a danger to a tree if they burn too hot. Newer LED lights have a lower wattage and are safer, he said.
“Make sure (the lights) are burning steadily with no shorts and no frayed wires,” he said.
CM Farms in Clay County had not sold live trees since 2000 prior to this year, owner Chad McComic said, but sales have been strong since the Saturday before Thanksgiving.
McComic agreed with Worthey that the pandemic has likely made people stir-crazy.
“We have a strawberry farm, and we did 10 times the business this spring than we did in the last three years,” he said.
Most of McComic’s customers are from outside Clay County and come from within a 60-mile radius, such as Starkville, Columbus and Ackerman, he said.
‘They’re coming for the experience’
Balsam firs were the only type of tree available at CM Farms. Franco said the co-op sells a variety of firs, with Fraser firs by far the most popular.
Fir trees are not native to Mississippi because they grow in colder weather, and tree vendors like CM Farms and the co-op order shipments from the northern regions of the United States earlier in the year.
Meanwhile, two local tree farms in Monroe County grow their own trees and receive customers from throughout the Golden Triangle every year. Worthey Tree Farm grows different varieties of cypress trees, and so does Childress Tree Farm in Aberdeen.
“I have a lot of people every year who come up wanting fir trees, and I say, ‘No, they don’t grow here,'” Childress Tree Farm owner Wayne Childress said.
He and Worthey both said they have seen about the same level of business and demand as they usually do, but they also have seen several first-time customers in addition to their regulars.
“When people come out to a farm, they’re coming for the experience, but I guess they leave with a tree (either way),” Worthey said.
Worthey Tree Farm sold out of its available trees on Sunday, and Childress Tree Farm has between 40 and 50 trees left to sell on its four-acre farm.
Worthey echoed Franco’s tree safety tips and emphasized keeping a live tree in a cooler area if the house’s heating system burns wood.
Both Worthey and Childress have dedicated customer bases who come from more than an hour away to buy their trees. Mandy Duffner of Caledonia said she and her family buy their tree from Childress every year, and she said it is always a fun outing.
“You get to pick out the tree you like the most, they help you cut it down and they always get coloring books and crayons for the children,” Duffner said. “If you need a tree stand, they’ll give you one. It’s awesome to go out with your children, agree on a certain tree, bring it home and set it up together.”
Frank and Mary Jane Brown of Columbus said they buy their tree from Lowe’s most years and have always preferred a live tree, ideally a Fraser fir. They usually identify the tree they want early in the shopping trip, look at more trees for a while and come back to the first one, Mary Jane Brown said.
“We’ve never changed to artificial,” she said. “We just love a real tree, the smell of it. It’s just so pretty and we have fun shopping for it.”
Tess Vrbin was previously a reporter for The Dispatch.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 43 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.