Holiday traditions live on at Iowa Christmas tree farms

SOLON — At 10 a.m. each Friday after Thanksgiving, the gates open to Handley's Holiday Hillside, and scores of people pour into the parking lot to pick out a pre-cut Christmas tree or hike through the field to select their own.

It's a tradition now in its 40th year at the farm, owned by Margaret and Terry Handley and located at 1731 White Oak Ave. NE, Solon.

'We are on the third generation of families,' said Margaret Handley. 'We've had one wedding proposal out in the field. We have a family that has been coming since we started. They would pass the football around in the parking lot. Then they started tailgating.'

This year's opening day was no different and Jim and Mary Jo Kloft, of Anamosa, were among the first customers to hit the fields. Joining them was the couple's daughter, Abbie Stolte — along with her husband Jeremy and their two children, from Lisbon — as well as neighbors Kathy and Orlyn Brunssen, of Anamosa, who said this was their first trip to the farm.

'It's just time for a real one again,' said Kathy Brunssen, adding she hasn't had a real tree in her home for years.

The Klofts, on the other hand, have created 10 years of memories at the Handleys' farm.

'It lifts your spirits,' Mary Jo Kloft said of the fresh smell of pine, adding she would never think of hanging her family ornaments on an artificial tree.

Abbie Stolte concurred and said the experience of having her children, Landon, 12, and Lauren, 9, pick out a tree is irreplaceable. The kids also get to pick out a new ornament each year to hang on the tree, another family tradition. This year, they chose a football player and a Polar Express ornament.

It wasn't long Friday before the Klofts and Stoltes had each selected a bushy canaan fir tree.

'Cutter!' shouted Abbie Stolte as only a veteran visitor to Handley's Holiday Hillside could do. Unlike some tree farms, Handley's does not allow customers to cut down their own trees, but rather sends an employee out to do it for you.

A short time later, the trees were carried to the parking lot, put into a shaker to remove loose needles and loaded into the bed of the Stolte's pickup truck.

'It's such a beautiful thing of nature to take into your home,' Mary Jo Kloft said.

A variety of trees

Handley's Holiday Hillside is one of more than 100 farms selling trees in the state of Iowa, according to the Iowa Christmas Tree Growers Association. Nationally, about 15,000 growers have approximately 1 million acres in production, according to the National Christmas Tree Association.

Founded in 1963, the Iowa association boasts 190 members, including more than a dozen in the eastern part of the state.

Other farms in the Corridor include Barnes Tree Farm in Iowa City, Wagner Christmas Tree Farm in Ely and Kirby Tree Farm and Wickiup Hill Tree Farm, both in Toddville.

The state association reports scotch and white pine are the most popular of the Iowa varieties, but several others grow well in the Iowa soil: blue spruce, red fir, balsam fir, Douglas fir, concolor fir, canaan fir and Fraser fir.

Right now, 'the Cadillac of Christmas trees' is the canaan fir, a blend between Fraser and balsam firs, Margaret Handley said. But the Handleys have already planted more Colorado Blue spruces, which Margaret predicts are going to grow in popularity.

She said it takes eight to 14 years for the scotch, white, red and canaan fir trees grown on the farm to mature. She and other Eastern Iowa growers said a drought in 2012 may begin to impact the size of the annual crop in the years ahead as many of the seedlings that year were wiped out.

A family tradition

Mary Jo Kloft says her family has been coming out to the farm long enough to recognize other real-tree enthusiasts.

Like Paul Sueppel and his family from Iowa City, who gathered around their tree at Handley's Holiday Hillside Friday to sing 'Oh Christmas Tree,' an annual family tradition that dates back more than 35 years.

Kloft jokingly suggested her family do something similar, but she had no takers on Friday.

Margaret Handley says her farm plays a vital role in such family traditions and milestones and she encourages those who usually put up an artificial tree to consider doing something different this year.

'It's a good time for families,' she said. 'It's something they do once a year. We hope young families are starting a family tradition.

'As the children grow and maybe get into their 50s and go to all parts of the country, wouldn't it be nice to say, 'Remember when mom and dad and us kids went out to get a tree from a tree farm instead of going to the attic and getting out a box?'

'That, to me, really hit home.'

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