Consumers : Perfect Yule Tree: Fresh, Safe and Even Delivered
Now is the time to start worrying about finding and caring for that perfect Christmas tree.
And starting this week, Lana Colvin and Ann Humphrey will wear red shirts, white pants, green aprons and Santa Claus hats while driving a truck full of trees to Los Angeles residents who want to buy a home-delivered holiday fir.
Colvin, a vice consul for consumer trade in the British consulate, and Humphrey, a Eugene, Ore., writer, plan to have their vehicle equipped to play cheery holiday music over speakers, just like an ice cream truck.
“The reason is that when we were kids and the ice cream man came down the street, we really got excited,” Colvin said from her West Los Angeles home.
Although some lots deliver Christmas trees, the plan by Colvin and Humphrey to bring the lot to the buyers’ doors, they say, is unique and offers greater selectivity and other advantages.
“Why waste time looking for a lot, hassling with parking, fighting for a sales person and then struggling to get a less-than-perfect tree in your car, with pine needles everywhere, when you can buy a tree right at your door?” Colvin asked.
Calling themselves Mother Christmas, the women will offer 800 trees, ranging from 3- to 8-feet tall and costing $15 to $80. If those sell out, they have access to more.
Working predominantly on the Westside, they will sell the trees through advertising and take orders by telephone.
Customers using Mother Christmas’ approach can test their Douglas or Noble firs for freshness the same way that patrons evaluate purchases at cut tree lots or choose-and-cut farms.
The “best test” on a lot is “to pick the tree up and drop it. If the needles fall off they are not fresh and it’s an old tree,” said Ira R. (Bud) Lyon of West Covina, past president of the California Christmas Tree Growers Assn. and a member of the executive board of the National Christmas Tree Assn.
But sometimes falling needles are misleading. “People see a few needles fall and they think the tree is dry,” said Jan DeLyser, executive vice president of the Fresh Produce Council, a trade group. “But a lot of times the trees are wrapped in transit. They haven’t been expanded. So when you hit it on the ground you’re bound to see a few needles fall.
‘Much Better Test’
“Grabbing the tree trunk and feeling for moisture is a much better test.”
Lyon said if the tree is fresh, the needles should bend because they have water in them. If the needle snaps, it is dried out.
A fresh tree not only looks and smells good but helps to prevent fire, the Los Angeles Fire Department says.
The department recommends that a tree be kept fresh by cutting off about 2 inches from the trunk and mounting it in a sturdy, water-holding stand. The holder should be filled with water and checked daily because a dry tree can burn like tinder and send sparks flying.
Firefighters also urge that trees be kept away from fireplaces, wall furnaces and walkways. A homeowner who relies on flocking, chemical coating or sprays for fireproofing is making a mistake, firefighters say, because those methods are not foolproof.
As for Christmas lights, they should be inspected for broken or cracked sockets or frayed wires, firefighters say. Indoor lights should not be used outside and vice versa; no more than three sets of lights should be connected to an extension chord.
Tree buyers who follow these rules should enjoy their trees this year because a large, healthy crop is available, according to cut-tree and choose-and-cut vendors.
Most Common Varieties
Most say that the trees are selling for close to last year’s prices. DeLyser said the two most common varieties of cut trees in Southern California, Douglas and Noble firs, should sell for about $4-5 per foot and $6-8 per foot, respectively.
Dealers hope to sell about 3 million trees, including about 300,000 of the choose-and-cut variety, between Santa Barbara and San Diego this season.
Customers looking for ways to make buying the tree a family affair or a reminder of the traditional holiday may consider extra touches offered by several tree farms.
A Walk in the Forest
Santa’s Forest Christmas Tree Farm in Downey and Anaheim, for example, offers petting zoos, hay rides, candy canes and a baby tree for children to take home and plant.
And at the Green and Fresh Christmas Tree Farm in Pasadena, night patrons can take a gas lantern to select their tree on a chilly, old-fashioned, holiday-time walk through five acres of sweet-smelling pines. If they are cold when they return, hot chocolate is waiting. So is lemonade for the more hearty.
“We try to make it festive so that they will come back,” said Alex de Ulloa, Santa’s Forest owner. “Most corner lots (of cut trees) can’t do that kind of thing.”
