The Monday after the numbing commercial frenzy of Black Friday weekend, it was a breath of fresh air to stroll through a quiet forest of Fraser firs, Scotch Pines and Blue Spruces and inhale a piney remembrance of simpler Christmases past.
Sadly, it was a short walk and reverie. Reaching the end of the tented "forest," I emerged into the midday glare of traffic, billboards and commerce near the intersection of State Road 436 and East Altamonte Drive.
Christmas tree lots like this one, operated by Watson Tree Farms in central Michigan, are not just nostalgic trips down a Currier & Ives memory lane, they provide a few weeks of welcome holiday employment for workers and students in a still struggling economy.
Watson, which also has lots in Longwood and Casselberry, sends workers from Michigan but hires two or three residents to help at each site. Down the road at Santa's Trees, under a candy-striped tent on U.S. Highway 17-92 in Maitland, all the workers are local.
Michael Dever, 16, a home-schooled student from Sanford, is working 8 to 10 hours five days a week – saving for a car. Tyler Holder, 30, is an Altamonte Springs landscaper picking up some green during his slow season when other green things go dormant. Randy Settle, 53, is a commercial photographer in Winter Springs.
Dever nodded when I asked if he was the classic "penniless student."
"I'm penniless and not a student," Settle laughed.
Since no one keeps lists of Christmas tree lots, even the cities and counties that issue permits and licenses, it's hard to estimate the number of lots and the workers they employ. The only certainty is that the numbers are shrinking.
Warren Brown, 71, has owned and operated Santa's Trees for 38 years, taking over the company after two years as a Jaycee volunteer. At one time, Brown had 20 lots in the area with a workforce of nearly 70. The lot on 17-92 is his last stand. About a dozen part-timers share the work load.
"Like any other business, it's changed over the years," Brown said. "The big boxes have pretty well run the independents out business." (Lots run by volunteers as fundraisers for nonprofit groups also have taken a hit.)
With Home Depot, Lowe's and other "boxes" cutting into the market for the midsize trees that decorate most homes, Santa's Trees has survived by catering to the demand for 15 to 20-foot (and larger) trees in palatial homes, public spaces like arenas and hotels. This year they delivered a 40-footer to Portofino Bay Hotel at Universal Orlando.
Brown expects to sell 800 to 1,000 trees this season – ones he hand-picked on trips to North Carolina – but he does it now more for love than money.
"If it wasn't for the people who come back year after year after year, I probably wouldn't stay in the business," he said. "I'm selling to people who came here as kids with their parents. In some cases, kids of the kids."
Similar motivation drives Jose Rivas, owner of Josario's Christmas Trees, with lots in Oviedo and in south Orlando, near the intersection of Orange Avenue and Michigan Street. Rivas, 40, is a criminal defense attorney in Winter Park and also owns and operates Ice Twister, an ice cream social catering company.
Selling Christmas trees is what he does for fun, and as an expression of his belief in the importance of community. At the entrance to the big tent on Michigan is a hand-lettered sign:
"Small, local family-owned business which stimulates the local economy by hiring local employees only who study, work, play and live in our community."
Rivas said he has 12 to 15 workers between the two lots. One of them, Mike Rogers, 24, was manning the front desk when I visited. He's a fulltime employee, working at Ice Twister the rest of the year.
"Last year he was a sign holder," Rivas said of Rogers. "This year he's counting the money. He's a fine young man."
Rivas, who came to the U.S. from Cuba with his family when he was 7, reveled in his hectic holiday schedule.
"Yesterday I was selling trees – today I was going to court!"
gdawson@tribune.com or 407-420-5618
