It would be my first time to cut down my “own” Christmas tree. My dad and I had gotten permission from our good friend John Daugherty to go on his land and take any tree we wanted. We got started a little later in the afternoon than we had hoped.

My desire to get the “perfect” Christmas tree took more time than I anticipated. Before I knew it, it was getting dark and my dad said, “You are going to have to make up your mind!”

I decided on one and we cut it down and drug it to our station wagon.

When we arrived home, we unloaded it, took it in the front room and set it up. I was very proud… until my mother arrived home, walked into the front room, looked at it and loudly said, “There are bagworms all over this tree, get it out of here!” My dad and I had not noticed that due to the darkness.

Thankfully he had a great idea…so I thought. He told my Mom he would go get a can of artificial snow, we would cover them with snow and they would look like ornaments. Her reply was, “Get it out of here!”

It was my first time to cut down my own Christmas tree and my first time to not have a Christmas tree in our house.

No Christmas tree, but great memories!

Memories like that are why I enjoy stories such as the following. Hope you do, too……

What Does it Take to Grow the perfect Christmas Tree?

For this New Jersey farmer, it’s years of patience, endless pruning, and a little bit of crazy.

At Hidden Pond Tree Farm, tucked away in Mendham, New Jersey, you’ll find Christian Nicholson tending to his 30,000-plus Christmas trees, which range from one to 12 feet tall. The farm is a 45-minute drive from New York City, but it’s a world apart from the Big Apple—like a time warp back to simpler days.

This is more than just a place to buy a tree. It’s an experience.

Originally a landscaper, Nicholson dreamt of starting a Christmas tree farm in his hometown, to recreate the emotion he felt as a child when he cut down his own tree for the first time.

“I have that memory seared into my head,” Nicholson said. “There were wild trees growing across the street, so my mom took me and I cut my first tree.” (He also recalled another particularly memorable year when his dad got a 10-foot tree for their seven-foot ceilings - “so rather than cut three feet off the bottom, he cut three feet off the top,” he said. This did not sit well with Mom.)

Nicholson started the farm in 1999, and his friend and partner Suzanne Bayon de Neufville provided the land and funding. But since it takes about eight years for a tree to grow to maturity, the business didn’t have a product to sell for a long time.

“I had a lot of faith,” he said. “You have to believe in nature and time.”

Sadly, his partner, having fought a long battle with lung cancer, didn’t live to see the first tree sold. She left him with a request.

“She said, ‘I vouched for you with my family, but my days are coming to an end. Please follow through, and don’t forget it’s about the children. Keep it real and authentic,’” Nicholson said.

He agreed. The land remains in her trust.

“We try to keep it super simple and oldfashioned, and I think that’s why we get an incredible response,” he said. In addition to cut-your-own trees, the farm offers hayrides, a firepit and snack bar, honey from its own hives, and a “Santa Expedition” where kids can take a wagon out to visit the man himself.

“When you pull in here, it’s just a magical experience,” Nicholson said. “It’s about getting the kids out of bed and bundled up, going out in the cold, taking a nice long walk with a hand saw, and cutting your own tree down. It’s an iconic thing that doesn’t exist much anymore.”

Growing the ‘Perfect’ Trees The question Nicholson is asked the most during the Christmas season is, “What do you do the rest of the year?” Turns out, a lot.

“People think you plant them and they grow. And that’s just not the case,” he said.

February through April is planting season, with trees planted by hand. He estimates he loses 30 to 40 percent of the seedlings he puts in, mostly due to the weather.

That’s followed by the summer “shearing season”, which is laborintensive. “Every single one of the trees we have