From the Fields: Robert Criswell, ​​Santa Clara County Christmas tree farmer

By Robert Criswell
Santa Clara County Christmas tree farmer

We opened for early sales the second weekend in November and sold more trees than all previous four years combined. They’re coming out early for trees, even in almost constant rain. If it goes the way the early season is going, it’s going to be wild. Most sales are on the three-day weekend following Thanksgiving. The weekend after that, it starts tapering off. The last couple years I’ve sold Christmas trees up until five o’clock Christmas Eve. I have three farms. I hire a lot of young people, especially high school kids. We have them measuring and knowing the various types of trees.

I’ve run out of space. I’ve stopped planting about five or six years ago because I would be in my mid-90s by the time those trees got big enough to sell. I’m almost entirely selling stump cultured trees, a process where if a tree has been cut properly, the roots will maintain a second, third and sometimes fourth tree. I couldn’t keep up if I had to replant for every tree that is taken out.

Most of our trees are Douglas firs, but we also have a lot of grand fir, white fir and a few Sierra redwoods, although they’re getting so large that they’re beyond the Christmas tree stage. The longevity of the tree depends on how the tree is set up. If it’s near a warm heat source or in the sun and doesn’t have water, it won’t last as long.

We sell our trees for an $80 flat rate. I have talked to several growers locally, and we’ve decided that’s a fair amount. It’s very important to me that customers go away happy rather than feel that they’ve been overcharged or rudely treated because happy customers will come back, and that’s how I’ve grown my clientele. I have some families that have come for four generations. The main thing is I’m not so much selling Christmas trees as I’m selling the experience.