O.C. Takes Tree Wars to New Heights

When it comes to Christmas trees, ‘tis the season to be boasting.

Just days after South Coast Plaza installed a 95-foot white fir near the Westin South Coast Plaza, Fashion Island countered with a 110-foot white fir of its own--and immediately boasted that it had snared the mythical title of “the nation’s tallest Christmas tree.”

When asked for comment on the Newport Beach center’s claim, a South Coast Plaza spokeswoman politely suggested that the oft-photographed Rockefeller Center tree in New York City might be just a tad taller. Upon learning that Fashion Island’s entry was indeed bigger, the spokeswoman quipped, “Well, you can still say that we’ve got the nation’s tallest palm trees.”

The game of mine-is-bigger-than-yours in Orange County drew a predictable response from Rockefeller Center, where decorated trees have been a Big Apple holiday tradition since 1931.

“Only in California,” sniffed Marc Torsilieri, whose family-owned company in New Jersey has been procuring trees for Rockefeller Center since 1968. “What next out there, maybe a redwood?”

But even Torsilieri acknowledges feeling the pressure to deliver ever-bigger trees. This year’s edition, a 90-foot Norway spruce, is one of the tallest trees ever to grace the world-renowned perch above the center’s golden statue of Prometheus.

“When we first started doing this, the trees were 60-footers,” Torsilieri said. “They just kind of kept creeping up in size. I’m not quite sure how it got that way.”

Boasting about a tree’s size isn’t a new sport in a country that last year purchased 37.1 million Christmas trees.

Washington, D.C., lays claim to the National Christmas Tree--this year it’s a 78-footer that recently was erected on the Ellipse.

Rockefeller Center weighs in with “The Giant Christmas Tree,” and South Coast Plaza describes its growing collection of Yuletide greenery the “Great Trees.” In San Francisco, Macy’s claims that its 80-footer is the biggest in Northern California.

Towering trees and festive decorations are an integral part of the retail world during the make-or-break holiday shopping season, when many retailers ring up as much as 60% of their annual sales. And trees are viewed as increasingly important elements for tourist-dependent regions that can’t lure visitors with warm weather and sandy beaches this time of the year.

“The retail business is very competitive,” said Michelle Bohrer, Fashion Island’s director of sales and marketing. “And each January, we start looking at how to make our outdoor plaza look even more special.”

“It’s tough making your center stand out because so many of the same stores are in every mall,” said Kathy Paver, a marketing executive with Pier 39 in San Francisco, which will light a 65-foot tree this year. “But you do want to get your share of publicity, to make people think about you during this important retail season.”

South Coast Plaza’s fir tree is just one attraction in a growing forest at the Costa Mesa shopping center. There are two custom-made artificial trees--the 55-foot “Wishing Tree” in its Jewel Court and a 60-foot “Great Tree” at Crystal Court.

Crystal Court also will host the second annual Festival of Trees, a collection of 100 themed holiday trees. While there’s no admission charge to view the trees, a variety of family-oriented entertainment is available for a fee, with proceeds going to Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian. Last year’s collection of 50 trees drew an estimated 200,000 sightseers.

Trees “certainly are a crowd gatherer,” said Joan Geiger, associate executive director of the Milwaukee-based National Christmas Tree Assn. “And it sounds like California really likes its trees.”

Calendars issued by visitor bureaus in Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York are jammed with holiday events--ranging from the lighting of a giant Hanukkah Menorah in New York City’s Grand Army Plaza to the 80-foot tree that Macy’s will light up on Union Square in San Francisco.

“We view the Macy’s Christmas tree at Union Square as a regional tourist attraction,” Macy’s spokeswoman Merle Goldstone said. “We draw visitors from throughout the state--after all, San Diego is just an hour away from the Bay Area.”

The Los Angeles Convention and Visitors Bureau’s calendar dedicates eight pages this year to holiday events, including lightings for 50-foot trees at Universal City Walk and Century Plaza Towers/ABC Entertainment Center. Graham Nash and Bill Medley will host the lighting ceremony at Plaza Towers.

Ever wonder what Dick Van Dyke’s tree might look like? Check out the lobby at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, where owner Merv Griffin is auctioning off 40 celebrity-decorated trees in a charity benefit that last year raised $30,000.

There are even alternatives for tree lovers who are allergic to firs: The Huntington Library checks in with a 12-foot-tall tree made of succulent plants.

When Fashion Island decided to go for the title, it turned to Victor’s Strictly Custom Christmas Trees, a Laguna Niguel company that supplies several centers, including South Coast Plaza, with their holiday firs.

Owner Victor Serrao, whose father founded the company more than 20 years ago when he provided trees for Disneyland’s annual holiday decorations, combs the slopes of Mount Shasta in Northern California for really big white fir trees.

Victor’s “is the guru of trees around here,” said Fashion Island’s Bohrer. “We basically told him to go out there and get us the biggest tree. He’s tied into the Christmas tree network, and that’s what he did.”

The white fir in the courtyard outside of Bloomingdale’s at Fashion Island doesn’t look like your typical white fir: Serrao’s crews attached about 450 branches to the tree to fill it out, and covered it with a greenish fire retardant.

Torsilieri says he’s impressed with the 110-foot tree: “That’s definitely bigger than ours . . . I’d like to see some pictures of it. We’ve got some 100-foot trees back here, but they get to looking pretty ratty.”

Bohrer notes that Fashion Island also plans to keep its title: “You might say we’ve extracted a right of first refusal from Victor’s for any big trees they find in the future.”

But Serrao is betting that the tree wars are only beginning. “We’ve started to look at blue spruce trees in Colorado that are much taller and look a lot more like traditional Christmas trees.

“And we’ve also started to approach Las Vegas. If they get interested, you can bet the trees will get even bigger.”

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Tree Towers

Fashion Island Newport Beach gets the bragging rights for tallest Christmas tree in the county. It’s also much taller than many others around the nation. A selected comparison, in feet:

Fashion Island: 110

South Coast Plaza: 95

Rockefeller Center, New York: 90

Macy’s, San Francisco: 80

National Christmas Tree, Washington: 78

Pier 39, San Francisco: 65

Macy’s Union Square, San Francisco: 65

Crystal Court: 60

Century Plaza Towers / ABC Entertainment Center: 50

Lincoln Center, New York: 40

Ghirardelli Square, San Francisco: 35

Source: Times reports

Researched by GREG JOHNSON / Los Angeles Times