Families keep tradition alive at cut-your-own Christmas tree farm

David Valencia stood with a bow saw in one hand and the freshly cut base of a six-foot-tall Monterey pine in the other as his parents and sister admired the tree.

The Valencia family had made the trip — as they have done the last 12 years — to the 40-acre Holloway’s Christmas Tree Farm in Nipomo to score the perfect decorative cornerstone to their holiday season.

For Teresa and Pedro Valencia, of Santa Maria, a trip to the farm with son David and daughter Andrea is a holiday tradition as old as the family itself.

The major draw, of course, is the joy of working as a family to cut their tree straight out of the ground.

This year, David did most of the heavy lifting.

“The memories are the number one reason we come,” Pedro Valencia said. “It’s real beautiful just coming out here with the family. And the trees last longer.”

“And I love the scent — it’s so fresh out here,” said Teresa.

Pedro and Teresa recalled a few years back, while picking out their tree, suddenly being caught in the rain in the middle of the farm. They got soaked, they said, but they got their tree home in one piece — and they did it as a family.

As they hopped onto the back of a tractor with their prized pine, another family was weighing a tough decision between two equally worthy Monterey pines.

Emily, Abigail and Haley Berg, ages 9 to 13 years old, zipped in and out of the rows of trees as they considered all the angles — height, color, how “fluffy” they were — before making their choice.

The girls and parents Garrit and Kimberly Berg, of Arroyo Grande, have been coming to the tree farm for as long as they can remember, at least 10 years. Like the Valencias, deciding on a tree, having it removed fresh from the ground and hauling the prize home is an annual tradition. “Growing up in the Midwest, we would find a tree to cut down on our own property for Christmas,” Garrit said. “I guess it reminds me of growing up.”

Friday was the family’s second trip to the farm this year. Two weeks earlier, they came out with a different mission: to reserve a very particular tree for Grandpa.

“He said he wanted the biggest tree we could find,” Kimberly said. “And we found it.”

In years past, the family has rolled up their sleeves and cut their own tree. This year, they left the dirty work to the professionals at the farm.

“We went through a phase where we always cut it ourselves and then we realized they have chainsaws,” Kimberly said. “And here we were getting all sweaty.”

“Plus their cuts are better, and that really makes a difference,” Garrit added.

The Bergs said not only do they get a kick out of picking their own tree out of the ground, the farm offers plenty of ways to spend a day, such as the massive pole swing at the front of the property and a tractor tour ride that circles the entire farm.

They recalled eight years ago, while purchasing a tree, farm employees gifted the family a free foot-tall “baby tree.” They took it home and planted it in the yard. Today, that baby is about eight feet tall, they said.

“(My daughters) still call it our little baby tree even though it’s huge,” Kimberly said. Holloway’s Christmas Tree Farm officially opened for the season Nov. 17, but the day after Thanksgiving is what co-owner Carl Holloway considers the true grand opening.

The farm has been in the Holloway family for five generations, he said. His father, Delmer Holloway, opened the tree farm on the property in 1962, and Carl and wife Debbie took over in 1987.

The family grows Monterey pines from seed, a process that takes three years to grow a tree four feet to seven feet tall, or four years to grow s seven- to 11-footer, Holloway said.

The farm also grows White and Douglas firs, and offers pre-cut Noble, Fraser and Grand firs brought in from Washington State.

Holloway said at the peak of the season the farm can sell close to a thousand trees on a busy Saturday. It costs about a half-million dollars to operate the farm annually, he said.

Asked what it was about his tree farm that brought people back every year, he said it was likely a combination of the rural location of the farm and its native deer and other wildlife, the environmentally-friendly operation, and the old-school novelty of cutting down your own tree.

“I’ve thought many times, how many places can you go with the entire family and everybody has an equally enjoyable time doing the same thing?” Holloway said. “It’s a total family experience and we’ve got great people working here to make it fun for everyone.”

Those include some 47 seasonal employees, most of them students, to cut, trim, shake and haul the trees for customers.

This story was originally published November 29, 2014 at 1:10 PM with the headline "Families keep tradition alive at cut-your-own Christmas tree farm."