A Holiday Among the Pines : Christmas: Selling trees is a family tradition at some lots. A third-generation merchant says she likes the job because the shoppers are always happy.

Getting a Christmas tree has been a family tradition ever since the 8th Century, when St. Boniface Christianized the Germanic Teutons and introduced ceremonial evergreen trees to replace the sacred oak of the pagan god Odin.

In the South Bay, there’s another family tradition associated with Christmas trees--selling them.

Consider the Cottones, who for the past 34 years have sold Christmas trees in the South Bay.

“We’re in the third generation now,” says Tom Cottone, 39, as he stands behind the counter at the Cottone and Sons lot near the corner of Crenshaw and Sepulveda in Torrance, one of two Christmas tree lots the family is operating this year. “My father, Tony Cottone, started in 1959 at a lot on the corner of 190th and Hawthorne. Then I got into the business about 15 or 20 years ago. Now my daughter Andrea--she’s 19--she’s been working on the lot since she was 4 years old, and she’s running this lot now. She has a son, Jacob, he’s 2, and he’ll probably be in the business when he’s old enough. It’s a family tradition, all right.”

For most of the year the Cottones operate a building-contracting business. But Christmastime is devoted to selling trees.

“I like the business,” says Cottone’s daughter, Andrea Paz, “because when they’re buying a Christmas tree, everybody’s happy. Nobody’s ever grumpy.”

Cottone, whose brother Bob and sister-in-law Joanne also work in the family Christmas tree business, estimates that the Cottone family has sold at least 350,000 Christmas trees, over the years.

This year alone they’ll sell more than 10,000--out of an estimated 33 million Christmas trees sold nationwide this year.

“We’ve got people who have been buying trees from us ever since my dad started the business,” Cottone says. “Coming here is like a tradition for them.”

Of course, there have been some changes in the business over the years, such as prices. A six-foot Douglas fir that might have sold for a couple of bucks in the 1950s now goes for about $30.

There have also been technological advances, such as the brightly covered awnings that now cover some tree lots. The purpose is functional, not decorative: the awnings keep the Southern California sun, which is strong even in December, from drying out the trees.

Competition from chain stores and supermarkets, Cottone and others say, has made it tough on independents.

“A lot of places do it for the fast money,” says Cottone, “but they don’t really know Christmas trees. They may be selling trees for $19.95, but you have to be careful what you’re buying. You take a (chain store) tree and put it next to one of our trees and it’ll be like a VW next to a Cadillac.”

Surprisingly, perhaps, Cottone says the hard economic times in the South Bay haven’t hurt business.

“When the economy’s bad, Christmas is extra special for a lot of people,” Cottone says. “It’s something to look forward to. They always find some way to buy a tree.”

Another family, the Roberts, has also made a tradition out of selling trees in the South Bay--even though they live 800 miles away.

“We’ve been coming down here for more than 30 years,” says David Roberts, 43, of Oregon City, Ore., who every year brings a load of trees down and sells them from a lot on Hawthorne Boulevard in Lawndale. “My dad, Verlin Roberts, started it, and I used to come down with him when I was a kid. It’s not my primary source of income--I’m a swimming pool contractor--but my father’s retired now, and it’s sort of a family tradition. I probably wouldn’t even do it except that it’s a tradition.”

Roberts expects to sell about 1,100 trees this year, at prices that range from $7 to $8 per foot for Noble firs to about $5 per foot for Douglas firs.

“I guess I’ll keep doing it until it becomes too much of a pain,” Roberts says.

Further south on Hawthorne near 190th Street, Jerry Eckberg, 58, is also maintaining a South Bay Christmas tree tradition--but he’s not sure how much longer he can keep it up.

For almost 28 years, Eckberg, a big, bearded man in coveralls, has operated South Bay Christmas Tree Farm, a “choose-and-cut” living Christmas tree lot under Southern California Edison high-voltage power lines. For $5.50 per foot customers can pick out and saw down a Monterey pine Christmas tree from among the thousands growing on Eckberg’s 2.5-acre parcel.

“It’s a tradition for a lot of people,” Eckberg says. “A lot of families come out with all the kids, and when they cut the tree down the kids always yell ‘Timberrrr!’ at the top of their lungs.”

“I love doing this,” says Eckberg, a former U.S. Forest Service employee. But unfortunately, he says, “It’s getting to the point now where I may be forced to give it up.”

Land lease prices are constantly going up. Water for irrigation is expensive. And then there was a plague of Nantucket pine-top moths that threatened the crop.

Eckberg says he hopes to sell about 600 to 800 trees this year--enough to see him through till next Christmas.

“I’d hate to have to give it up,” he says. “It’s sort of a tradition.”

Keep Your Tree Merry and Bright * Trees can drink up to a gallon of water a day. Keep the water basin full.

* As soon as you get the tree home, saw an inch or two off the stump. If you have it done at the lot, go straight home before the tree sap dries and seals the cut. A fresh cut allows the tree to drink water.

* Don’t put your tree near a heater. It’s safer that way and will keep your tree from drying out.

* Decide where you’re going to put the tree before you buy it. There’s no point in buying a 10-foot tree for a room with an 8-foot ceiling.

* If you buy a flocked tree (flocking is the bleached paper pulp that’s supposed to represent snow), especially a cut-rate flocked tree, wipe away some of the flock and check the needles for freshness before you buy. Some unscrupulous dealers may try to cover up a dried-out tree with heavy flocking.