The official White House Christmas Tree, displayed in the Blue Room of the Executive Mansion, will come from an NC tree farm in the Blue Ridge Mountains. The announcement is good news and provides a ray of hope for an area that was hit especially hard by Hurricane Helene in late September.
Cartner’s Christmas Tree Farm in Newland was named the 2024 Grand Champion Grower at the National Christmas Tree Contest. Winners of the tree contest have provided the official White House Christmas Tree since 1966.
“We are so excited to provide the White House Christmas Tree, and this year the honor means a little more because this provides a boost to the entire industry throughout the state,” Sam Cartner Jr. told Sci NC. “Christmas tree farming is a way of life, and while Helene hit hard, we’re coming back and we will be ready for harvest, [and] the trees will be heading down the mountain in time to help families celebrate the season.”
Cartner said his farm lost about 6,000 trees to mudslides in the storm. In addition, harvest roads and culverts were washed away.
“We’ve been out rebuilding and getting ready not just for White House staff to come in and select a tree but also to get ready for harvest,” adds Cartner.
Cartner says his father started the farm in the 1950s. He initially grew a variety of crops but gradually switched to exclusively growing Fraser firs as a Christmas tree farm. The farm sells trees wholesale but also operates as a choose and cut.
“We grow Fraser firs not only because they are native to the region, but also because of the color, the fragrance and the ability to hold their needles for a long time,” said Cartner.
White House staff selected the tree on October 28, but it won’t be harvested until November 20. Cartner plans a special send-off at the Mountain Glen Clubhouse in Newland that will also be a fundraiser to help growers hit by the storm.
The tree will be presented to first lady Jill Biden when it arrives in Washington.
More than three million fresh-cut Christmas trees come from North Carolina every year, making it the second-largest producer in the U.S.
In all, 53 million trees are growing across 940 farms statewide, according to the North Carolina Christmas Tree Association.
In a statement on its website, the association notes, “We have a long way to go, but we have every confidence that in November, we will welcome out faithful friends to our local choose and cut farms and out wholesale Christmas trees will be on their way down the mountain.”
Fraser fir Christmas trees grow from seed to eight-inch seedlings in greenhouses. That takes about five years.
The seedlings are then transplanted to fields, where they grow about one foot every year. It takes about eight more years of growth before a tree is ready to harvest; that’s 13 years of growing time for each tree.
During that time, farmers must trim and shape each tree, fertilize the soil, treat for insects and take care of ground cover around each tree. Growers work on each individual tree more than 100 times each year. It’s a labor-intensive crop.
Cartner says that makes the losses from Hurricane Helene even more difficult. Fortunately, farmers typically have multiple fields with trees in different stages of growth, so the harvests will go on.
Cartner knows other farmers like him who lost trees in landslides. Others also lost farm buildings and equipment due to floodwaters. However, the biggest impact on the industry is in infrastructure because roads were washed out.
“But we will come back; the nation and the holiday are counting on us,” said Cartner.
LEARN MORE
Using genetically superior seeds, NC farmers could produce Christmas trees that look pretty, don’t lose their needles and grow faster. (From January 19, 2024)
Watch this Sci NC story from 2014 to find out more about Christmas tree farming and climate change.