People prepare ‘fir’ Christmas, as holiday approaches

WAUSAU, Wis. (WSAW) - Thanksgiving is over and that means it’s that time of the year when people start decorating for Christmas. Highland Trees in Wausau just opened the weekend after Thanksgiving, and the manager said business was booming, despite some difficulties caused by supply chain issues.

High Trees has around 50,000 trees growing at any given time. The tree farm’s manager, Mike Martin, said each year, around 1,500 are shipped to tree lots. That’s where supply and demand shortages into play for the business. “There [are] some difficulties getting all the right varieties in the right sizes to all the right parts of the country at the same time, but overall there’s plenty of trees,” Martin said.

The farm sells around 1,500 cut-your-own trees. People were leaving left and right Sunday, all successful in finding the ‘pinest’ tree while celebrating a tradition. “We have customers who are third-generation customers who are coming out here, so we’ve been here a long time, and I think were pretty good at what we do now,” Martin said.

He explained that there really is no off-season in the tree business. “It’s a lot of hard work all throughout the year, but for about four weeks that’s when all the familiar faces show up and we get to hand out coloring books and make Christmas happen...that’s what makes all the work worthwhile.”

Martin said all of the employees look forward to opening day, but after that, Christmas is on the back of their minds. “...Because then it’s the first day off, in a couple [of] months.”

Highland Trees is open Tuesday-Sunday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. It’s located at T8501 North 33rd St. Wausau, WI 54403. For more details about the farm, click here.

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