Christmas tree sellers seeing busy season

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Kathy Cleveland photo Joyce Jakubowski of Nashua and her friend Sharon McLaughlin of York, Maine, were at Butternut Farm in Milford on Monday buying three Christmas trees, which they cut themselves.

Enlarge

Kathy Cleveland photo Joyce Jakubowski of Nashua and her friend Sharon McLaughlin of York, Maine, were at Butternut Farm in Milford on Monday buying three Christmas trees.

Enlarge

Kathy Cleveland photo Joyce Jakubowski of Nashua and her friend Sharon McLaughlin of York, Maine, were at Butternut Farm in Milford on Monday buying three Christmas trees, which they cut themselves.

Enlarge

MILFORD – Some people like to buy their Christmas trees from lots where the trees are already cut and a man will wrap up the tree and attach it to the top of their vehicle.

Then there are the do-it-yourself types who enjoy the yearly tradition of tromping through fields at cut-your-own farms, sawing the tree down and dragging it to their car.

Tree lots are easy to spot on major roadways, but to find a cut-your-own place takes a little hunting.

There are two we know of here in Milford: David Wheeler’s Miracle Acres and Noreen and Tim O’Connell’s Butternut Farm.

After selling several hundred trees in eight days and 254 just last Saturday, Miracle Acres will closed for the season this week, Wheeler said.

“We’re sold out. There are maybe 25 to 50 left,” he said. “The regulars know to come early to get the best selection.”

The Wheelers make Christmas tree shopping a family fun excursion, with tractor and pony rides and free cider and cocoa on their Mason Road property.

Over on Federal Hill Road, the O’Connells have been growing and selling trees for 20 years.

“We don’t advertise,” Noreen O’Connell said. “We have so many loyal customers. Between Thanksgiving and until the night before Christmas people come.”

On Monday, Joyce Jakubowski, of Nashua, was there with her friend Sharon McLaughlin, of York, Maine, picking out and cutting three trees, including one for a friend.

“I’m spoiled,” McLaughlin said. “I’ve got to have” a tree from Butternut Farm.

Both women say they like the look of the O’Connells’ trees because they’re not overly trimmed.

Here are some cut-your-own Christmas tree farms in New Hampshire, some near and some far. It’s a good idea to call first to make sure the farms are open and still have trees for sale.

• Butternut Farm, 483 Federal Hill Road, Milford, 673-2963. All kinds of trees, including a new variety called Concolor fir. $25 any tree, any size.

• Miracle Acres, 523 Mason Road, Milford, 673-9077. Varieties include fraser fir, balsam fir and blue spruce. $40 for any tree. Sold out for this year.

• Fairview Farm, 365 Adams Hill Road, Greenville, 878-3843, bbuttrick8468@comcast.net.

• Farmstead Acres, 143 London Road, Westmoreland, 352-8730, farmsteadacres@gmail.com.

• Finnegan’s Fine Firs, Bethlehem, 444-6275, finnegansfinefir@aol.com.

More New Hampshire farms are at www.nh-vtchristmastree.org/choose.php.