Gilbert Christmas Tree Farm grows holiday cheer

BY KADIE TAYLOR

THE LAFAYETTE SUN

LANETT — Established in 1983, Gilbert Christmas Tree Farm is opening for its 37th year to sell Christmas Trees in Chambers County from Nov. 22 to Dec. 14 — Fridays from 1 to 6 p.m., Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sundays from noon to 6 p.m. ET. Gilbert Christmas Tree Farms will also host food trucks, where customers can purchase treats to support small businesses and fuel up to cut their tree.

The story of Gilbert Christmas Tree Farms' start to selling trees began when the Alabama Extension Service encouraged people to begin growing Christmas trees on their land and said they could expect to profit from the endeavor.

“There was one farm down in Auburn that planted 60 acres of Christmas trees and hardly sold any of them,” said owner Ray Gilbert. “Fortunately, we started small, and what we all grew back then was called a Virginia Pine. We had 22 farms in Chambers County, Russell County and Lee County, and we had our own Christmas Tree Association — and out of that, we're the only ones that’re still in business.”

Gilbert said that selling locally-grown Christmas trees takes multiple years of growth and year-round maintenance.

“It wasn't as simple as just planting them — the big thing is, these trees have to be shaped — they don't grow to a natural shape on their own,” he said. “That's the hardest work, because it's done in late spring and summertime, and when it's 95 degrees — it sure is hard going out and trimming Christmas trees, but you have to do it then. We also have to spray them and we have to keep the grass cut around them so they'll grow — it’s more work than people think. I have a lot of customers who will think that we plant the trees, and they come back a year later and they harvest the trees. The trees don't grow that fast — it takes anywhere from three to five years to get a mature Christmas tree.”

Gilbert Christmas Tree Farm sells a variety of trees, including Leyland Cypress, Carolina Sapphire and Virginia Pine Christmas trees. Gilbert said he even drives to North Carolina to bring a truck of Fraser Fir trees back to his farm and ensures they stay watered and fresh for customers.

“We're a choose and cut operation,” he said. “So basically, we give you a hand saw, and you go out there and select your tree and the kids cut it down. If somebody's having trouble and can't get it cut down, we will cut it for them — but the majority of the trees we sell, the customer wants to cut them because that's the attraction to coming to a choose and cut Christmas tree operation.”

As people search the farm to find and cut their perfect tree, Gilbert said they can enjoy some local food trucks to refuel with treats and food.

“We’re going to have food trucks out here as a service to our customers,” he said. “We don't make anything off of it; our benefit is offering something else to the customers and making the customers happy. Some places try to charge the food trucks a fee to come out, but we talked about it and decided we see it as a service to the customer and not as something to be a money-making operation for us — we're making our money from selling the Christmas trees.”

Gilbert said Gilbert Christmas Tree Farm also has a gift shop, curated by his wife, daughter and daughter-in-law.

“They do a lot of work in that, and they take a lot of pride in it,” he said. “We try to have unique stuff — we go to the Gift Mart in Atlanta in January, where we order our merchandise for the next year to have a stock. We have a lot of unusual things, and we've gotten to the point now where we have some customers that have artificial trees — and they come out to us just to get the unique decorations.”

With all the hard work throughout the year, Gilbert said he enjoys the Christmas tree-selling season and watching families across generations shop for their perfect tree.

“The fun time is this time of year when we [sell the trees], because we see all the kids and families come out and repeat customers,” he said. “With as long as we have been in business now, we'll have the kids [who are] grown, and [they’ll] bring their kids out here. It's just fun business — knowing that we're providing a service, and people are having a lot of fun and a good time picking their own tree out.”

For more information, visit www.giltree.com — to shop for a Christmas tree, go to 1230 County Road 296, Lanett.