‘Oh, Tannenbaum’
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas at Bluebird Tree Farm
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Dalton Andrews of the Bluebird Christmas Tree Farm staff carries a tree to the car for Joseph Worsham, center, and Kim Tyler, both of Oak Ridge, on Sunday (Nov. 29) - G. Chambers Williams III
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Leo Collins, owner of the Bluebird Christmas Tree Farm, shows off the “Hallmark Channel Countdown to Christ- mas” book written by his daughter Caroline McKenzie. He’s standing in the farm’s gift shop, which sells local jams and honey. - G. Chambers Williams III
Leo Collins hopes the holiday spirit for many people this season will begin with their choice of a tree at his Bluebird Christmas Tree Farm.
For the past 38 years, Collins has run the tree farm at 985 Brushy Valley Road in the Heiskell community to serve as a launch pad for many families’ holiday celebrations.
This season, he opened the farm to Yule customers last weekend, and it will remain open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursdays through Sundays until Dec. 20.
Besides about 60 trees still available for people to choose and cut themselves on his seven-acre planting area, Collins has more than 200 pre-cut trees imported from the mountains of Tennessee and western North Carolina for sale in his big white tent.
The locally grown trees are Leyland cyprus and Virginia pine, while the pre-cut ones are primarily Fraser firs, along with some other cold-climate varieties, all of which come from three different farms, Collins said.
“The Fraser firs are our most-popular variety,” he said, “We get them from the Mountain City area. It’s too warm to grow the firs here.”
Prices for the locally grown trees top out at $65, while the pre-cut ones can run as high as $80 for the Fraser firs and some others.
The farm has about 15 total employees working for the season helping to wrap and trim the trees for people to take home. About 12 of those are on duty at a time, Collins said.
There’s also a gift shop on the farm, which Collins had built eight years ago. It sells some decorating items, including fresh mistletoe and tree skirts, but mostly people buy the locally produced jams, jellies and honey the shop has on display.
Pints of jams and “butters,” such as pumpkin, strawberry and blueberry butter, are $6 each. Jam and jelly flavors include cherry, strawberry, peach, pear, blueberry, strawberry, elderberry, blackberry and cinnamon-pear.
There’s even one called “Traffic Jam,” which includes strawberries, rhubarb and raspberries.
Emily Brennan drove to the farm last Sunday from Decatur to find a tree and check out the gift shop, where she was looking over the jars of jams.
“We found this place by Googling ‘Christmas trees near us,’” she said.
Collins said he bought the farm 38 years ago with the idea of growing Christmas trees for people to come and cut their own, a dream he’d had since he was a child.
Over the years, he has dabbled in other businesses on the farm, including a wholesale nursery, grapevines and honeybees.
“They all made money, but they were a lot of work and were not as much fun as Christmas trees,” he said.
His children and grandkids all worked in the business at various times, but are not long involved, he said.
Collins said he is quite proud of his daughter Carolyn McKenzie, who is the author of the top-selling holiday book on the market this season, called “Hallmark Channel Countdown to Christmas.”