Guide
When to Buy Your Christmas Tree
There's a real trade-off here, and it runs the opposite way for choose-and-cut farms than it does for pre-cut lots.
In this guide
- Choose-and-cut: go early
- Pre-cut lots: it depends on the source
- Buying early and keeping it outside
- A note on weekday visits
- Check before you drive
Choose-and-cut: go early
At a choose-and-cut farm the tree stays alive and rooted until you cut it, so freshness isn't the variable — selection is.
Most farms open the Friday after Thanksgiving. The best-shaped trees in the most popular size range, roughly six to eight feet, go in the first two weekends. Some farms sell out of a species entirely by mid-December.
If you want a particular species or a large tree, the opening weekend is not too early. Several farms now take reservations or let you tag a tree in October and collect it later.
Pre-cut lots: it depends on the source
A pre-cut tree was cut somewhere else and trucked in, so the clock has already been running.
Early in the season you get the best selection but the tree may have been cut in early November. Later you get a smaller choice but lots often take fresh deliveries through December.
Ask when the current stock arrived. A lot that gets weekly deliveries in mid-December may have fresher trees than one that took a single load before Thanksgiving.
Buying early and keeping it outside
If you want to buy early but not display early, keep the tree outdoors in a shaded, sheltered spot with the trunk standing in a bucket of water.
Out of wind and direct sun, a tree will hold in good condition for a couple of weeks this way. Make a fresh cut before it comes inside, because the trunk will have sealed again.
A note on weekday visits
Weekend crowds at popular farms are substantial, particularly the first two weekends and anywhere with hayrides, Santa or a bakery.
Many farms open weekdays with a fraction of the traffic and the same selection. If your schedule allows a Thursday or Friday, it's a different experience — and easier with small children.
Check before you drive
Opening dates shift year to year, farms sell out and close early, and small operations sometimes don't update their websites.
Call ahead. This applies double to farms that run by appointment or reservation, which is an increasing number of them.