You see my father-in-law owns a five acre Christmas tree farm a few miles out of town. This time of year is so beautiful, with the snow falling on the dark green Christmas trees. Up north, in mid-MN we do it old style. You come out with your entire family and pick out your tree. We help you find the perfect tree among thousands. We also help you cut it down and load it into your vehicle.
Some people call this work, but I love it. Just the smell of those fresh cut Christmas trees and some hot chocolate in the heated garage and I’m there. The greatest part about it is that everyone is happy to be there, so you don’t have to work at selling them anything because they’re already sold before they get there. Everyone is excited about Christmas and more than happy to enjoy their experience of picking out a very special Christmas tree – one that is just right for their family. I sometimes think they are paying for the experience more then the tree.
We weren’t sure how this year would go with the economy in crisis, but so far things are busier then ever. On Saturday, we set a new one day record with 78 trees in one day. A small business that you love to work at is the best business of all. On that same Saturday that we set a new one day record, the local paper was chock full of company layoffs. A few people asked us if we were slow, but that was about all the talk about the economy that anyone was interest in.
There was a slightly higher demand for lower end Christmas tree’s, and several new customers said that the tree farm they used to go to had closed down – to our advantage. Last year there was five weekends between Thanksgiving and Christmas and this year there is only four, which could have also contributed to our record breaking day. I think the recession is more likely to reduce the number of presents that children get, but without a Christmas tree how can a family celebrate the most important time of the year - the birthday of the King of Kings. Merry Christmas everyone.
This week I participated in several blog carnivals
They did an excellent job and as usual, there are tons of great articles. If you have the time, I highly suggest you skim through this week’s carnivals.