Bluebird Christmas tree farm now open

November 22, 2023 by G. Chambers Williams III

The Bluebird Christmas Tree Farm on Brushy Valley Road opened for the 2023 holiday season last weekend, and owner Leo Collins said there are plenty of trees available.

While the farm offers some live trees customers can pick from the fields, the bulk of the trees sold will be pre-cut varieties the farm has purchased from outside vendors.

“Our stock is good,” Collins said at the farm Saturday morning, as a steady stream of buyers showed up to pick out their trees.

“Today we’re short on eight-foot trees, because someone came in and bought a whole bunch,” he said. “But we have more of them coming from Oregon next week.”

In the meantime, Collins said there are plenty of trees ranging from about 6-1/2- to 12-feet tall.

“In our fields we have Leyland cypress, Norway spruce, and Scotch pine,” he said. “We will be bringing in Fraser firs, Douglas firs, and Balsam firs.”

According to the farm’s Facebook page, “We have about as many trees in the field as we did last year. Also, we will have as many precut firs as we did last year, and the quality of the trees in terms of density and freshness is even better than last year.

“In addition, our wreaths, white pine garland, mistletoe, and other greenery will be in good supply.”

Bluebird Tree Farm also operates a seasonal gift shop, which its Facebook page says is “fully stocked with T-shirts, caps, tree stands, local jams, honey, ornaments, and more.”

This year the store also features bacon and whole smoked country hams from Benton’s Smoky Mountain Ham in Madisonville.

Last year, Bluebird had about 350 trees growing in its fields that were ready for the season, and had shipped in more than 1,200 Fraser firs from tree farms in cooler areas.

Collins said the farm will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday through Sunday, except for Thanksgiving Day.

It will remain open until Sunday, Dec. 24, unless it runs out of trees first, Collins said.

For many 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.

His pre-cut trees are imported from the mountains of Tennessee and Western North Carolina for sale in his big tent. Staff members wrap the trees and help people load them into or on top of their vehicles.

“The Fraser firs are our most-popular variety,” Collins said earlier. “We get them from the Mountain City area. It’s just too warm to grow the firs here.”

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.

The gift shop 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 available. Jam and jelly flavors include cherry, strawberry, peach, pear, blueberry, strawberry, elderberry, blackberry and cinnamon-pear.

Collins said he originally bought the farm 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.

This fall, there was also a Pumpkin Patch venue operated at the farm, which included a corn maze and hayrides. Collins rented space to its operators, who grew pumpkins and corn on the farm.