Trim, 'woodsy' or dyed: Wisconsin's Christmas tree harvest underway as 'Green Friday' looms

Remember rubbing your mittens together and stamping your boots to keep warm at the Christmas tree lot, as your parents pondered the perfect tree?

Right about now, Christmas trees stacked on flatbeds are making their way to communities throughout the state, said Cheryl Nicholson of the Wisconsin Christmas Tree Producers Association.

It’s crunch time for tree farmers as they harvest and prepare thousands of these evergreen conifers in time for “Green Friday” — what they call the day after Thanksgiving. That’s opening day for many cut-your-own tree farms and community Christmas tree lots that pop up at corner gas stations and in grocery store parking lots.

The middle third of the state is one of the nation’s leading suppliers of Christmas trees, with 859 farms in production on 23,373 acres, according to the 2017 Wisconsin Agriculture Census.

It’s an industry that banks on long-term investments due to the ten to 15 years it takes for a seedling to grow into a good-sized Christmas tree, Nicholson says. The most popular retail sales height is about six feet.

This year there's a high demand for natural trees and a shorter supply, said Dan Hanauer, who, alongside his wife Julie, owns Hanauer’s Tree Farms, on Christmas Tree Lane in Shawano.

The 2019 harvest is based on the market and how many trees were planted more than a decade ago. In this case, it dates back to a time of recession and an oversupply of trees, which drove some tree growers out of business.

“That doesn’t mean there’s a shortage of trees, but I have had to turn some wholesale customers away this year,” the tree farmer said.

By season’s end, Hanauer farms will have shipped out 30,000 trees — among them the best-selling Fraser fir, along with balsam fir, Canaan fir, Colorado Spruce and white pine.  

In 2017, one of the family’s Christmas trees was featured in the blue room at The White House.  Another of their tree — a 40-footer — stood in full decoration on the Naval battleship USS Wisconsin while it was still in commission.

Hanauer says the shearing process is the most critical part of the business because it gives the tree its attractive, cone-like shape and leaves a single leader at the top on which to place that shiny star.

“We do a Victorian shear, which leaves the tree more open and gives it an old-fashioned shape people seem to love,” he said.

For Curt Kindschuh of rural Brownsville, his Old Baldy Christmas tree farm is more of a hobby. Its a passion that sprung from childhood memories of life on his grandparent's farm. When he planted 20,000 trees on 25 acres — mostly the popular Fraser fir — he scattered them so hunting for a cut-your-own tree would be more like a walk through the woods.

The Fraser fir was named for John Fraser a Scot botanist who explored the Appalachian Mountains in the late 18th century, according to the National Christmas Tree Association. The species' fragrance, shape, strong limbs and ability to retain its soft needles for a long time when cut make it one of the best trees for this purpose. 

Kindschuh's place offers two miles of hiking trails and his trees are left in their natural state, offering more of a "woodsy look."

“We live here in a log home with antiques scattered all over the place, so there’s a throwback kind of down-home feel," he said. 

Emily McCamy of Nashville, Tennessee was visiting family in the area and stopped by Kindschuh’s place to cut a 14-foot tree she could haul home atop her car. She said last year she visited a tree lot near her home and was eyeing a Fraser until the guy at the lot told her it was $265.

"I laughed out loud and told him I can drive to Wisconsin and get one cheaper than that, and I did," she said. "We cut a tree, had a great time, made some memories and still paid less overall than if we bought that overpriced Nashville tree."

McCamy is deploying in January with the Navy and said Kindschuh was kind enough to let her get an early start on Christmas. 

Many of the state’s Christmas tree farms operate on less than 50 acres, Richardson said, and cut-your-own farms offer families a great Wisconsin destination experience. Wolesek Christmas Tree Farm in Wisconsin Rapids takes customers on a hay wagon ride out to the rows of trees ready for cutting.

The family's sampling of colorful Christmas trees are a big hit, said Jan Wolesek. It's a trend that started a few years back in the industry, and involves dyeing real trees in brilliant gem tones. 

The trees are painted before they are cut with a product created by Kirk Co. in Wautoma. The colorants are non-toxic and environmentally safe, and the trees come in colors like holly red, midnight blue, sugarplum, bubble gum, gold and snowfall white.

"It's kind of taken the place of flocked trees, and people love them so much we usually sell out by the second week," Wolesek said. 

Darlene Arneson, who heads the National Agricultural in the Classroom program for the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation, says she’s settled on a red Christmas tree this year for her home in Stoughton. She thinks the idea is fun and funky.

In the classroom she promotes Christmas tree farming as an agricultural career option.

“The many years of hard work and labor that Christmas tree farmers put into their crop pays off with a wonderful fragrance in our home when we bring in a real tree,” she said.  

Hanauer points to the environmentally-friendly aspects of choosing a natural tree over an artificial tree. More trees exist on the planet because of the industry, and once the holidays are over, they can be reused in a variety of ways.

Christmas trees are turned into mulch, used for wildlife habitat in brush piles and make good hidey-holes for creatures that live in lakes. 

“From bird’s nests to snakes, bobcat, bear and deer — our Christmas tree farm is vibrant with life,” Hanauer said. 

A listing of Christmas tree lots and cut-your-own tree farms can be found at christmastrees-wi.org/.

Contact Sharon Roznik at 920-907-7936 or sroznik@gannett.com. Follow her on Facebook at facebook.com/reporterroz/

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