BEDFORD, Va. – The refrigerator is stuffed, half-eaten pies line the pantry shelf and the house is a little jumbled from Thursday’s big feast. Thanksgiving is over and many are heading off down a different, more jolly trail.
Tradition and spending time with loved ones—that’s what the holidays are for. It’s the way the Johnson family has done things for nearly two decades.
“Every day after Thanksgiving we come and get our Christmas tree,” Andrew Johnson said.
Searching for the perfect tree at the Dancing Hill Farm is something he looks forward to doing each year with his brothers and sisters.
“We were searching and then my dad was said, ‘This going to be the one.’ We kept looking for a bit, but never found a better one.”
The Forest family will decorate the tree Friday. This is the busiest weekend of the year for Christmas tree farms across Virginia.
“We’ve been probably doing it at least 10 years,” Laurie Guzek said. “Going to find a tree and cutting it down.”
For Guzek and her family, it’s about more than tree hunting.
“It’s about spending family time together,” she added. “Everyone lives out of town, so we try to do it when they’re with us and we can all do it together.”
By afternoon, Dancing Hill was sold out for the season. For those still in need of a tree, no worries, there are plenty of places to go.
“I’ve probably got about 150 to 175 that I can sell,” Mark Hatcher said.
Hatcher started his tree farm as a hobby 11 years ago, but he said this year has been unlike any other.
“This past year was very dry,” he said. “I planted about 400 trees and maybe 30 survived. No irrigation there, nothing you can do about that.”
Hatcher said many farmers are also dealing with shortages. His best advice to find the perfect tree is to start looking now.