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CNY Christmas trees ready to be cut for holiday season

Customers inspect precut Christmas trees at Grangers Tree Farm in Mexico, NY, Nov. 24.
Jason Smith
/
WRVO
Customers inspect Christmas trees at Grangers Tree Farm in Mexico, NY, Nov. 24.

It’s Christmas tree season in central New York and it should be a good year to cut your own.

It is not too early to go and find the perfect Christmas tree at central New York tree farms. Elizabeth Lamb, a plant breeding expert and senior extension associate with Cornell Cooperative Extension’s New York State Integrated Pest Management program, said just after Thanksgiving is one of the best times to go find the perfect tree.

“It is the most popular time to get a tree and I understand that because people’s families are here and sometimes it is a family tradition to pack everybody up, three generations and go out and find a tree,” Lamb said.

Customers head out to cut their own Christmas tree at Grangers Tree Farm in Mexico, NY.
Jason Smith
/
WRVO
Customers head out to cut their own Christmas tree at Grangers Tree Farm in Mexico, NY.

She said a good Christmas tree will have no problem lasting from now through the holiday season. Lamb said as long as your tree stays hydrated, it shouldn’t matter what kind you choose.

“I will always say the best kind of Christmas tree is the one that you like,” Lamb said. “Because you may go in there saying, ‘OK I want a Balsam,’ and come back with a Blue Spruce because you go there and it was like, ‘Oh, this is the tree that I love.”

Watering the cut Christmas tree regularly and keeping it away from heat vents will help keep it standing until January.

For those who may be concerned with how environmentally sustainable cutting your own Christmas tree may be, Lamb said the practice is not something to worry about.

“Christmas tree growing, it’s like an agricultural crop,” Lamb said. “So you cut a tree, but another tree is planted in the same place. Christmas tree growers are really good stewards of the land. They keep open land and they keep it managed, so it protects from invasive species comin' in and so forth.”

She said some municipalities even recycle trees, turning them into wood chips at the end of the season, making the tradition that much more sustainable.

Abigail is a temporary WRVO News Reporter/Producer working on regional and digital news stories. She graduated from SUNY Oswego in 2022 where she studied English and Public Relations. Abigail enjoys reading, writing, exploring CNY and spending time with family and friends. Abigail first joined the WRVO team as a student reporter in June 2022.