Christmas trees trimmed and ready for farms to peak

Christmas trees are being trimmed, fertiliser is being scattered around farms and teams are being recruited. The mahi is underway to make sure pines are tip top in time for the spiking popularity of real life trees this Christmas.

Mike Fuyala has been at the helm of Auckland’s Misa Christmas Trees for 12 years. It’s a family business passed through the generations since Fuyala’s grandparents immigrated from Croatia to New Zealand in the 1940s.

The one-hectare farm in Mount Eden will be open every day from 9am to 8pm from 22 November, with around 10 staff working away.

While they have some trees growing on site, they also get trees brought in from a larger farm up north.

“We’re also getting the team together - drivers, staff, and checking the trucks so they don’t let us down once the busy season starts,” Fuyala says.

“It’s an all-day, every-day operation once we get going."

Misa Christmas Trees range from $50 right up to $750 for a four metre tree. Fuyala has noticed more people choosing a real tree to celebrate Christmas in New Zealand. It’s a "stage of life" thing, he reckons.

“Every year we think there’s a reason people might stop [picking real tress] - the economy, Covid, cheap fake trees, but every year more of our regulars come back, and new families try a real tree for the first time.

“When you’ve got young kids it’s non-negotiable for a lot of people. When the kids grow up and move out, that’s when they might stop getting a real tree.

“A lot of our customers came when they were kids and now bring in their own - that’s kind of cool.”

Outside of the Christmas pines, Fuyala has recently started landscaping other trees, so the farm isn’t just a seasonal operation. Inside the farm there’s a nursery growing topiary cones, balls, spirals and hedges.

“It’s very hectic, so I’m not quite sure how it’ll go having Christmas time and that this year, but we’ll get through.”

Fuyala says it’s a common misconception that real Christmas trees are bad for the environment. But he did a lot to make sure that wasn’t the case.

“For every tree that’s cut, we’re planting at least another one and the farms we work with are too.

“We collect the trees after Christmas and they all get mulched and turned into garden waste. You couldn’t put a Christmas tree into landfill if you tried - it all goes to green waste facilities.

“People think potted Christmas trees are better for the environment, but cut trees are equally good; they grow faster in the ground and still end up mulched.

“Big farms even rotate planting with cattle grazing, which helps build up nutrients in the soil again - it’s a nice ecosystem.”

Andrew McAlister from Needle Fresh Trees has a close eye on his 22-hectare farm – feeding the trees, shaping, and fighting off weeds.

McAlister has been running the Christchurch farm for 20 years, ever since the idea took hold while working on tree farms in Scotland and Denmark during his OE.

“People laughed at me, even family members were like, ‘What? Weird. That won’t work.’ But 20-something-odd years later, we’re still doing it.”

In the early days, it was a battle to sell real Christmas trees as plastic took over but now it’s a family event.

“It can become quite a traditional one - there’s quite a bit of banter, Dad’s got his idea of what tree they want, Mum’s got her two cents worth, and the kids are all piping up.”

Things are kicking into gear for Malcolm Hine in Taranaki too - but recent rain has made it difficult.

“A lot of people just see it as a Christmas tree and think nothing’s gone into it but it’s not like that at all.

“We prune our trees three or four times a year, we also spray them with copper to keep them green, because no one wants a brown-looking tree.

“We mow between the trees to keep it all nice and tidy so there’s a lot of pre-season work that goes in and it’s 24/7 when we’re selling them, we get a lot of phone calls after hours and have already had half a dozen phone calls from people wanting to reserve their tree.”

Hine and his wife have been selling Christmas trees for 20 years and also grow maize and feijoas on their Brixton far, north of New Plymouth.

Hine is getting the trees pruned and all set to open on 24 November and will be open right up to Christmas Eve.

“It’s a hectic month, we’re pretty much knackered by the end of each day, but it’s only for a month.”

Hine backs up the trend that more Kiwis are opting for a real Christmas tree, especially families with young kids.

“It’s really neat to see, it’s a family time when they come out here and choose their tree with the kids, a lot of people dress up and have Christmas gear on, it’s quite a happy time.”