Holiday Tree Farms wraps up season selling 1 million Christmas trees

Photo by Dave Schudel

As curbsides and dumpsters are filling with discarded Christmas trees, Corvallis-based Holiday Tree Farms is preparing to plant another 1.2 million trees to replace nearly 1 million harvested this holiday season.

For every one person in Oregon there are about 12 Christmas trees, many of which are grown by Holiday Farms. Of their 8,500 acres across the state, about 7,000 of them grow Christmas trees. And although they sold just under 1 million of their trees in the 2016 season, most trees did not stay in Oregon.

“The majority of our trees go to California, probably 70 percent,” said Mark Arkills, Holiday Tree Farms production manager.

By Arkills’ estimation less than 1 percent of their trees actually stay in Oregon. What doesn’t go to California is shipped elsewhere in the country, many to Hawaii. Others are sent across seas to Japan, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines. According to Arkills, the average retail price for their trees this year was a little over $50.

Family owned since 1955, Holiday Farms is now managed by the second and third generations. The company has grown to be one of the largest Christmas tree wholesalers in the world and the largest in the nation.

“As far as we know we are still the largest supplier of Christmas trees in the U.S. based on the number of trees we sell each year,” said Arkills. “I’m almost positive we have more acres of tree ground we own than anyone else.”

Concentrated in four areas of Oregon spanning from Cheshire to Sheraton, the farm runs about 100 miles north to south and 35 miles east to west. Nearly all of their trees are grown from seed in their own nurseries to ensure a healthy, dense, and fragrant tree.

After a few years in the nursery, most trees will continue to grow for another seven or eight years before they are harvested. When harvest season comes each year, the company bulks up their year-round staff of 100 to about 700. Most of their work is done is less than six weeks.

“We start the second week of November until about the end of the second week of December, so it’s an intense season of about five weeks,” said Arkills.

They have a fleet of six helicopters moving trees every day from daybreak to sunset in order to keep up with the demand.

“After the trees are cut we put them in rope slings in groups of 12 to 16,” said Arkills. “Normally those are flown into big yellow bin trucks and trucked to a central shipping yard. That’s where the trees get shaken, bailed, and separated by size and species.”

Their most popular size of tree is 6 to 7 feet tall, with an increase of 5- to 6-foot trees sold in recent years. Noble firs are the most popular species, with douglas firs coming in second.

Although they have 10 months before the frenzy of the next season begins, Holiday Farms is now surveying their fields to inventory what they have ready to sell. Then, they will begin to prep their grounds for seedlings to be planted this spring. Come summer, they will start adding employees to begin culture work by hand that will shape the trees into what consumers have come to expect. By November, the process will be in full swing once again.