A Family Stumped : After Decades of Growing Holiday Trees, the Todds Won’t Replant

They searched and searched and searched.

Finally, after spending 45 minutes and nearly getting lost in the rows of Monterey pines, the Moore family of Garden Grove found their Christmas tree and sawed it down themselves.

For the Moores, as well as dozens of other families from Orange County, this is an annual ritual at Todd’s Christmas Tree Farm, one of the largest live-tree farms in the area. For years, the 40-acre farm has attracted families from far away, who love the excitement and tradition of selecting and cutting down their own trees.

But this is expected to be the last Christmas for Todd’s, which will close to make room for a housing development, one of many springing up in Corona. Shea Homes has an option on the property, and the Corona City Council approved in June a specific plan for the 184-home tract.

For Sue and Steve Moore, the closing of Todd’s probably means the end of a Christmas ritual.

“I was upset when I heard this could be their last year,” said Sue Moore, 36, as her three children ran through the rows of pines. “Just look at the trees, they’re beautiful.

“You pay $22 for a tree at Target, but you don’t know how long they’ve been cut. You just can’t tell. You have no idea what they look like when you get home. Here, what you see is what you get.”

For almost 25 years, families have come from as far away as Mission Viejo, Santa Monica and Apple Valley to get their trees. Some have brought video cameras to tape the experience.

“There isn’t a lot of tradition left,” said Gary Todd, 36, who helps run the lot year round. “But this is a family thing, a family tradition. They like to come back to the same place. They came here, their parents came here.”

Todd’s father, Ted, is a fourth-generation farmer who came up with the idea of starting the tree lot. Ted Todd’s great-grandfather, George L. Joy, first planted citrus groves here in the late 1800s. Through the years it was the site of lemon, orange and avocado groves. But each of the fruit markets eventually became less lucrative for the Todd family ranch, so the family settled on Christmas trees.

Agriculture “is one of those things where you’d like to control your price,” said Jim Morris, 64, general manager of the tree lot for the last five years. “But you can’t control your price, so we like to plant Christmas trees.”

Morris, Ted Todd’s brother-in-law, is one of the 20 family members who have a share in the site. Morris’ mother-in-law, Bernice Todd, 99, a retired school physician, still comes and watches over the business at Christmastime.

For the family, losing the site will be a mixed blessing. “We knew that eventually the next thing would be housing here,” Morris said.

“In a way we hate to see it go; in a way we don’t. . . . It’s a great feeling to see the families’ closeness, the fun they have. You see a lot of happiness.”

But 30 trees were recently ruined by vandals; through the years, trees have been cut down and stolen. Morris said he was even shot at during an attempted robbery.

Caring for the trees also is a 365-day-a-year task. Four people tend the trees throughout the year, trimming them and making sure that they are not diseased or getting too little water.

This year, they have 24,000 trees for sale for $35 each, and they expect to sell several thousand, Morris said. A share of sales will go to the First Baptist Church in Corona, which employs men and women to work the lot during the holidays.

Although the business of natural Christmas trees has generally been declining in the last few years, business at Todd’s Farm has been steady and might even be ahead of last year, he said.

“A lot of places are down, but we have a good product,” Morris said. “Still, the plastic trees are having an effect, there’s no getting around that.”

Skyrocketing land prices, though, have tempted many family-owned lot owners to sell to developers. For some of these owners, whose lots average 10 acres, the Inland Empire’s growth brings with it more vandals, more trees stolen and higher costs.

Sharon Burke, executive director of California Christmas Tree Growers, said: “You don’t make much. . . . I talked to one grower in San Bernardino who said the developers came out and offered him lots of money (for his land). What can he do? It’s too good to say no.”

Until the deal is closed, though, the Todds will go about their business as usual, Morris said. In fact, if nothing is signed by next month, they will plant trees again, he said.

“Who knows?” Morris said. “We have to go on as if we will farm it. . . . We’re just going to see how the ball bounces.”

For the customers at Todd’s, the farm’s demise will mean less chance of finding the perfect tree.

Bob and Diane Hilliard of Placentia stood on a slope examining a tree.

“The right height, the right size, a straight tree, that’s the important thing,” said Diane Hilliard, 55.

“They are just fresher, and we like this kind of tree,” said Bob Hilliard, 59, looking up and down at the seven-foot pine. “You have to look around until you find the right height.”

Nearby, the Moores’ three boys--Jesse, 10; Jon, 8, and Jake (J.D.), 4--could be heard shouting: “I want this one! I want this one!”

For Sue Moore, it was a painstaking process to find one they all liked.

Still, she said, “they love it, they love it.

“But we’ll all pick out a different tree. . . . Usually Mom wins.”