Listen to the Christmas tree farm owners: Don’t wait

After selling out of cut-your-own Christmas trees in just six days last year, Riverview Christmas Tree Farm held a pre-tag event earlier this month, offering the premium service as a way to ease the stress for some families.

“We were open six days last year, and we still sold over 1,000 trees,” said Shari Gannon, who bought Riverview north of Canton with her husband, Todd, in 2016 from the original owners. “We’re anticipating a similar year this year, and with having the pumpkin festival … a lot more people are aware that we are out there.”

Struggling with supply and demand is an issue for Christmas tree farms and retailers in the Sioux Falls area, but they’re still planning to make buying the centerpiece of holiday decorating a special occasion for families.

At Riverview, there are 1,200 trees available in a good year. To boost that number, the Gannons have been planting 5,000 trees every spring.

“Some survive, and some don’t make it, and we try to account for that every year. It takes eight to 10 years to get them to a good height,” she said. “The things we’re doing now are to make sure we have a larger selection in future years.”

Those who attended the Nov. 13 pre-tag event got their pick of the crop for $99 plus the cost of the tree. They also got two photo sessions: one with an old pickup or Santa’s sleigh and the other with their tagged tree in the field. The families got to hang out in the store and play games, drink hot chocolate and eat Christmas goodies.

Riverview installed irrigation this year, trying to combat the effects of drought, which have plagued the farm the past two years. Dry conditions stunt growth, meaning fewer trees get to a good height for harvesting.

Gannon is making a plug for “Charlie Brown” Christmas trees this year – the ones that aren’t quite perfect but still have character.

“They still look great when they’re decorated,” she said. “Some people are fine with buying a tree when it’s not perfect all the way around.”

The Gannons are proud to offer families the chance to create memories of cutting down their own Christmas trees, she said. They have, however, found a few pre-cut trees from other sellers to make up their limited supply.

Riverview started sales over the weekend and will be open Thanksgiving, Black Friday and the next three weekends – or until the trees are gone.

“Come early, and come prepared to look for a perfect tree and also to consider the Charlie Browns and those trees that aren’t perfectly shaped. They’re still beautiful. It’s more about the experience and having fun listening to music, spending time with family and finding a tree that’s perfect for them.”

At Tannenbaum Tree Farm between Tea and Lennox, owners Claudia and Tim Wassom are expecting to sell out quickly.

“There are probably less trees available again,” Claudia Wassom said. “It was so dry, and they really didn’t put on a lot of growth because of the drought. It’s a perishable product, and that’s how it goes.”

Last year, they were open for two weekends before switching to appointment only for the few trees that were left to cut.

She knows they won’t have any Fraser firs for people to cut this year because they’re just too small, she said. There are Scotch pines and a few varieties of spruce.

“There’s probably some 10-footers there in the spruce,” but families should come sooner rather than later if they want a good selection.

“If you’re after a shorter tree, 5-foot, or something on the table, we’ll have a nice selection until the end.”

Wassom also makes wreaths, swags and potted displays of greenery.

Starting this week, Tannenbaum will be open from noon to 5 p.m. Fridays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. Sundays.

At Christmas Tree Acres on Highway 115 near Harrisburg, demand was intense last year as more people stayed home because of the pandemic.

“We had no clue that was coming, and we could have sold another 500 trees,” said Colleen Johns, who owns the business with her husband, Larry.

They bring in fresh-cut trees from northern Minnesota and Wisconsin and ordered more this year.

For almost three decades, the couple grew their own trees but decided to quit because they couldn’t grow the varieties everyone wanted with the soil they had.

“Now we have time for fishing,” she joked.

They create a experience for people coming out to buy trees by offering visits with Santa, holiday-themed backgrounds for photos and Mary Carroll’s Gift Shop with locally made items, including some by Johns herself.

Christmas Tree Acres opened last weekend and is open from 3 to 6 p.m. weekdays and from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekends.

Lewis Drug stores will be in good shape for fresh-cut inventory this year, thanks to a more than 30-year relationship with its supplier in Wisconsin, said Bob Meyer, senior vice president for merchandise and marketing.

“He has made comments that because of our longstanding relationship, that we’re going to get shipments that other customers may not,” Meyer said.

One shipment has arrived, and the final one will come next week, he said. The trucks from Wisconsin deliver them directly to the stores.

“They load them one day, and we get them the next day,” Meyer said. “It’s a pretty quick turnaround. They’re pretty fresh when we get them.”

Supply chain issues caused delays in getting artificial trees, he said. More will be going out to stores Tuesday.

“It actually was more difficult to get the artificial trees than fresh-cut trees for us,” he said.

Lewis adds to its tree-shopping experience with the addition of Santa and reindeer.

They’ll be in Madison and Brookings on Friday and then in Sioux Falls, starting with 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at 69th and Louise, and then 3 to 7 p.m. at 26th and Sycamore. On Sunday, the team will be at the Ellis Road store from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and then 41st and Marion from 3 to 7 p.m.

Editor’s note: The hours for Christmas Tree Acres have been updated since the article was first published.