The tree tradition Families seek out the perfect evergreen for Christmas

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Ten-year-old Gabe Flegel of Bucksport all but disappeared under the boughs of the fir tree Saturday as he took his turn on the handsaw to cut down the Christmas tree he and his mother, Gayle, had selected.

The weather outside was balmy, more suitable to an Easter egg hunt, and Gabe was still wearing his shorts from basketball practice. But the lack of a blanket of snow or nip in the air didn’t diminish the holiday spirit of a steady stream of holiday shoppers who flowed into Penobscot Evergreens on Route 15 in search of the perfect Christmas tree.

For some, the search was a family holiday tradition; for others, it was a spur-of-the-moment decision. But all were looking for the same thing: a real tree.

“We’ve always had a live tree,” said David Bourgon of Bucksport. “There’s no alternative to me.”

His wife, Debbie, a forester, said she can’t imagine having an artificial tree for the holiday, and daughter Kelly, 15, doesn’t remember a time when they didn’t go hunting for a tree at Christmastime.

With son Alex, 12, and the family dog, Roo, in tow, they emerged from the rows of fir trees with this year’s choice to become the centerpiece of the family tradition, which includes hand-made ornaments and Bing Crosby singing “White Christmas.”

Don and Becky McLaughlin of Bucksport chose to purchase a pre-cut tree Saturday. Their tradition also is to have a real tree. They’ve been buying their trees for years – at first at a tree farm in Dover-Foxcroft, when they lived in Millinocket, and now that they live in Bucksport, at Penobscot Evergreens.

“I don’t want an artificial tree; there’s no smell to them,” Don McLaughlin said. “If you’re going to have a tree, you might as well have the real thing.”

The tree hunt is also a tradition for the Flegels. Gabe has been coming to the tree farm for a Christmas tree since just after his first birthday when his parents pulled him around the rows and rows of evergreens on a little red sled.

“He cried through the whole thing,” his mother said.

Gabe seemed to be enjoying himself as he and his mom debated which tree to cut down.

“We can’t have this one in our house, Mom. It’s only 5 feet tall,” he said.

Gabe admitted to having just one requirement: “Tall!”

And though his mother conceded that their home has cathedral ceilings, she was trying to be practical. She explained that Gabe’s older bother was away playing basketball and that she and Gabe would have to lug the tree up to the second floor themselves.

Gayle Flegel said she likes cutting a tree herself, for several reasons.

“I like knowing when it was cut down; I know that it’s fresh,” she said, noting that the family likes to keep the tree up long after Christmas is over. “And I like the smell of it.”

The Flegels live not far away, and Gayle said she also likes that the tree farm is local and that she’s supporting the local economy.

That’s good news for Calvin Luther and his wife, Mary Thomas, who have owned and operated the tree farm since purchasing it 10 years ago. The business had operated for 27 years before that. Penobscot Evergreens is one of 100 or so tree farms in the state, and its customers are among a growing number of Americans who are choosing to purchase a real tree for the holiday, according to Luther, who is the outgoing president of the Maine Christmas Tree Association.

According to national figures, more than 33 million Americans will purchase real trees this year, an increase from 26 million three years ago, when the national association began a major marketing campaign.

Although that kind of growth hasn’t quite trickled up to Maine, Luther said business has increased over the past several years.

The annual tree hunt is “pretty much a family thing,” Thomas said, though it sometimes goes in stages. When the children are little, everyone comes; when they reach adolescence, the dad often is seen coming alone.

“When the kids are little, you get the whole family, and sometimes the grandparents on both sides,” she said. “You even get the dog.”

Most don’t realize the amount of work that goes into creating just the right Christmas trees. Although Luther and Thomas run the business part time – she is a full-time student at the University of Maine and he works for Bangor Hydro-Electric Co. – they spend from April through November planting, mowing, fertilizing and trimming to be ready for the start of the season, which usually begins right after Thanksgiving.

“It takes between eight and 10 years to raise an 8-foot tree,” Luther said.

Once a tree is about waist-high, it gets trimmed at least once a year until it is cut.

The tree farmers’ efforts were appreciated by Cheryl and Wayne Allen, who cut their tree Saturday.

“We’ve driven by this place hundreds of time,” Cheryl Allen said. “They have nice fluffy trees and that’s what I like. I can’t wait to get it home.”

It’s tradition, she said.

“We have family coming home and they expect it – and grandchildren now,” she said.

They’ll hang ornaments on the tree, some made by their children when they were young.

“Some of [the ornaments] are 25 or 30 years old now, and we still hang them,” Wayne Allen said.

And for the Allens, those ornaments have to be hung on a fresh-cut tree.

“‘Cause it’s a real Christmas tree,” Wayne Allen said.