Grower says Christmas tree season off to a slow start

By Monique Steele of RNZ

Christmas tree nurseries are gearing up for the festive season with the first week of selling trees underway.

North Canterbury grower Andrew McAllister, of Needle Fresh Christmas Trees, has about 8-10ha planted in rotational Monterey pines at his Swannanoa farm, with the rest grazed by sheep.

“We plant every year, we harvest every year and I think we’d have anywhere between 20,000 to 25,000 trees on the site, so yeah we go through quite a few thousand each season,” McAllister said.

Now it is December, the McAllister family will be out selling trees daily in Christchurch’s Papanui and Linwood suburbs.

It takes four years for the trees to reach their full height — and they are usually felled in the last few days of November.

“The die-hard customers have already started coming through,” he said.

But he said it was a slow start to the season, and he believed this was due to the rising cost of living.

“This season’s interesting actually — it’s been quite a lot quieter than normal,” he said.

“After Covid, a lot of people were eager to get out and get amongst it and get some positive cheer going on.

“This season has been a slow start.”

Despite this, McAllister last Friday said he expected his business would “get slammed” over the weekend.

The company’s standard 6-7ft trees were selling for $40-$45, but they could be sold for double that in some parts of the North Island, he said.

“We’ve tried to keep our trees at a fair price, compared to Auckland I think we’re probably half the price.

“Back in the old days you’d buy your tree from the servo and someone’s hacked it out from a plantation up the river or something, and it was just literally an ungroomed or non-shaped tree, but ours are all form pruned.

“We try to grow a good tree and it’s hard to get them perfect, obviously.”

He said they were thankful for the loyal families that came back year after year.

“[I was] working from Eastgate myself one day and the amount of people who’d been buying trees from us for, like 10, 12, 13 years — they had kids with them that were now teenagers but that weren’t even born when they first started buying trees from us.

“And you start to really appreciate the loyal customer relationship so we do really enjoy it. It is quite fun, and during the harvest time can be quite enjoyable. There’s a good buzz, and families [are] generally in a happy space when they come out here and we try to be in the same zone.”

McAllister’s love of Christmas forestry was formed during a working holiday in Europe in his 20s: he started out in Scotland, and ended up in Denmark for about six years.

“It was my apprenticeship, if you like, I went over there with no education, left school with nothing really,” he said.

“Christmas trees turned out to be one of those things I learnt overseas that stuck with me.

“I don’t think anyone has a plastic tree over in Europe.”

McAllister said they would be selling trees up until December 23.

– RNZ