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COURTESY CLAYBROOKE FARM
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a aa fir ree fie ay roo e Farm o sa o y
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FAMILY TREES Growing Christmas trees is a family tradition. Can it survive?
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The region’s top 25 places to dine By Bird Cox, Stephanie Ganz,
Regional retreats for your next vacay
Eileen Mellon and Genevelyn Steele
By Paula Peters Chambers
THE RESTAURANT LIST
WINTER BREAK
By Greg Weatherford
RICHMONDMAG.COM
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Fam i ly Trees To most people, Christmas means gifts and cinnamon and woodsmoke. Snow and pine needles. Sleds and sleigh bells. Goodwill to all.
To Danielle Firkus, it means memories of planting and shaping trees, selling them on chilly evenings and si ing with family for hours making Christmas decorations to sell. Firkus grew up on a Christmas tree farm in Minnesota before moving to Richmond for pharmacy school. “I loved it,” she recalls. “Some of my favorite memories are of spending time with my family on the farm.” That rings true to Tyler Carroll, 36. His parents own Claybrooke Farm in Louisa County, where they grow and sell Christmas trees. Tyler and his brother, Ma , 39, have spent their lives taking part in the trade of farming trees. That meant weekends and holidays tending firs and spruces and pines — trees that might take a decade to reach maturity. People have a lot of ideas about Christmas farms. “People think we live in a Hallmark movie,” Tyler Carroll says. Nope. Let’s put it this way: Hallmark movies rarely involve bush hogs. Christmas tree farms do. A lot of people believe Christmas trees grow in forests and are cut by hardy lumberjacks. Nope. That was true until the 1970s, but it no longer is. These days, Christmas trees are farmed and harvested like other crops.
By Greg Weatherford
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ASH DANIEL
Growing Christmas trees is a family tradition. Can it survive?
Tyler Carroll and his nephew Emmet, 6, tag the trees they plan to sell this season at Claybrooke Farm.
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EILEEN MELLON
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ABOVE AND OPPOSITE: ASH DANIEL
been experimenting with Nordmann firs, a hardy tree that does well in hot, dry weather. The success of that experiment remains to be seen. “I knew they grew slow,” John grumbles. “I didn’t know it grew that slow.” Christmas tree farming is a year-round business. It starts in January with field cleanup — “a stump-cu ing party,” John calls it. In March, seedlings go into the ground. This is perhaps the most important decision the farmers can make in a year. Plant too few trees and there won’t be enough to sell in a decade. Plant too many, and 10 years later you might end up with a glut. This is what happened in 2008 — there were so many The Carrolls have been in the trade since 1984, (From left) Coley, Christmas trees for sale that prices collapsed, putMatthew and the year Ma was born. That first year, the family ting many farmers into bankruptcy. Emmet Carroll plant trees. planted 500 white pine seedlings. They spent the A er planting, the work moves through spring next six years tending the trees on weekends. By with mowing and, when needed, spraying with 1990 those seedlings had grown to 6 and 7 feet — just pesticides and fungicides (an almost universal practice big enough to sell — and the family had been joined by because trees have such long lives and are supposed to another child. That Christmas, they put out the word, look perfect). In summer, it’s time to shear trees, shaping built a bonfire and sold about 75 trees. them into Christmas-friendly conical silhoue es with a machete-like lopper or an electric pruning device. Virginia Carroll’s family has owned the farm since the 1940s. Back then, they raised ca le. A er she married and As autumn arrives, the pace picks up with identifying inherited the land, the couple decided to devote part of and tagging trees they plan to sell, ordering supplies. And, it to growing Christmas trees. (Another portion is leased crucially, planning ways to entertain customers who want to other farmers.) to create a family memory: straw mazes, Brunswick stew, Growing trees made sense for the family, says Virginia’s hayrides, apple bu er, hot chocolate. husband, John. Christmas trees don’t need daily care the When they started it, the Carrolls thought the goal of way ca le do — important because his job meant the famtheir family farm would be growing trees and finding cusily was based in the Roanoke area for many years. Plus, as tomers. They learned otherwise pre y quickly. Managing a longtime employee of the Department of Forestry, John a successful Christmas tree farm “is not about selling a knew trees a lot be er than he knew ca le. tree,” says John Carroll. “It’s about the kids and the whole Today, the Carrolls’ tree farm comprises 25 acres of family having an experience.” Christmas trees growing in tidy rows. The white pines they grew at first have made way for other trees as Christmas preferences have changed. Their top seller is the Canaan fir, a cross between a balsam and a Fraser The ritual of the Christmas tree runs deep for many fir that hails originally from West Virginia. The Carrolls families: the scent of cut wood and pine, the joy of bringalso grow concolor firs and blue spruces, and have ing a piece of winter wilderness inside the home. It’s a
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Christmas Tree TLC time-honored, all-American tradition. Well, no. Dragging a tree inside the house and covering it with decorations? The idea would have seemed like rank paganism to the Pilgrims. The thought also would have befuddled just about every American until right before the Civil War. Although Christmas trees were first recorded in 16th-century Germany, the custom was li le known elsewhere. It wasn’t until the 19th century that the Christmas tree began to, uh, take root in the U.S. In 1846, a magazine published an illustration of Queen Victoria posing with a decorated tree along with her much-loved husband, Prince Albert, and their children. (Albert was German and thus familiar with the custom.) The image enchanted Britain, and before you could say “viral meme,” the custom spread to Anglophilic East Coast America. In the years that followed, Christmas trees became essential elements of the iconography of the country’s most popular holiday. Soon the decorated tree was as important to our understanding of Christmas as jolly, jelly-bellied Santa Claus and his flying reindeer — two other striking images that date to the 19th century. Now, although Christmas is almost 2,000 years older than Christmas trees, it is difficult to think of the holiday without them. That fact has launched big business — Christmas tree sales will total more than $1.3 billion this year, according to the USDA. Despite what one might assume, the live-tree market is holding steady against the onslaught of artificial trees. Each year, more than 25 million real Christmas trees are sold in the U.S., says the National Christmas Tree Association, which represents more than 700 farms nationwide. Christmas trees are grown in all 50 U.S. states, the trees thrive in rocky, mountainous terrain unsuitable for other crops, and local tree farms employ local people and contribute to local economies. In addition, points out Tim O’Connor, the association’s executive director, “Every tree takes seven to 10 years to grow, and that whole time they are turning CO2 into oxygen.
We asked Tim O’Connor of the National Christmas Tree Association for tips on keeping your live Christmas tree in good shape throughout the season. • PICK A GREEN TREE. That means it’s fresh and in good health. Touch the tree — soft needles are a good sign.
eight hours out of water, but after that, they start to dry out. If needed, a tree can be kept outside in cold weather for a few days.
• GET A FRESH CUT. If your tree has not just been cut, have the vendor or assistant cut about half an inch off the bottom of the trunk. This helps it take in water.
• TREAT IT LIKE A VASE OF FLOWERS. Check the water level regularly and top it up as needed.
• PUT IT IN WATER. Most species will be OK up to
• KEEP IT AWAY FROM HEAT SOURCES. Fireplaces, heating vents and direct sunlight dry out a tree.
Compare that to an artificial tree made of plastic.” O’Connor, who has led the association since 2015, says “artificial tree” the way other people would say “fungal infection.” He reluctantly acknowledged his parents had an artificial tree when he was growing up. But he never loved it. “I just like trees. I always have,” he says.
The fact is, despite the family-friendly face of the Christmas tree industry, the trees most people buy are the products of huge farms. These farms are concentrated in
Christmas tree farming is a family a a r a ay roo e Farm e o r g ar ey a a e s e o arro Ty er arro a e arro rg a arro mme a o ey .
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ABOVE: COURTESY WOODS TREE FARM; OPPOSITE: COURTESY FIREVER PINES
six counties in two states, North Carolina and Oregon, which together produce more than half the Christmas trees sold in the U.S. The largest Christmas tree farm in the world, Holiday Tree Farm in Oregon, harvests about a million trees every year and employs 800 people. Megafarms like Holiday Tree provide the trees you’ll find every Yule in supermarket lots and at the big hardware chains, cut, bagged and ready to take home — the industry term is “precut.” By contrast, local farms like Claybrooke sell trees that are selected by the Phil and Stacey Woods, his videos have turned into an informal training daughter Caroline and son customer in the field and cut on the spot. The Hudson founded Woods ground. Whenever he posts about a problem, felindustry calls these “u-cut” trees. Most Christmas Tree Farm five years ago. low farmers chime in with comments — and usutrees grown in Virginia — worth $10 million a ally with suggestions and solutions. “Christmas tree growers tend to be a friendly bunch,” he says. year, according to the Department of Forestry — are u-cut. After five years in the field, so to speak, Woods is an That is a very different business. Instead of trying to evangelist for it. He admitted there’s little money to be crank out as many trees as possible at the lowest price possible, u-cut farms emphasize the fun and togetherness gained at the scale of farming he’s doing — a er expenses of ge ing the tree. there’s not a lot of profit in selling maybe 1,000 trees a year At Woods Tree Farm in Amelia Court House, Christmasfor $75 each. “We want families to go out and have a real tree hunters can expect a full holiday-outing experience: a Christmas experience together, year a er year. If we want fire pit, hayrides, hot chocolate, s’mores, photos with Santa, this tradition to continue we have to keep it up.” selfie stations with props. “We try to go all out,” says Phil Woods’ children now are 7 and 12. Will they carry on the Woods, the proprietor. “It’s more than just cu ing a tree.” tradition? He hopes so. “It’s kind of a passion project now,” Woods, a digital marketer by trade, got into the Woods says. “This tradition needs to live on.” Christmas tree business five years ago with, he cheerfully acknowledges, “no background or experience at all.” A Delaware native, Woods came to Virginia because his wife, Stacey, works at Capital One and her family has roots That may be difficult. O’Connor, with the National Christmas Tree Association, says the biggest challenge in the Richmond area. He thought there could be a good facing the industry is not cheap foreign-made plastic opportunity in founding and marketing a Christmas tree farm. To find out, they bought 43 acres of land — mostly trees or grubs or even poor soil nutrition. It’s old age. Many because it featured a picturesque hill and pond — and Christmas tree farms aren’t being carried on by the farmstarted planting. ers’ children. “There are older growers who don’t have a Running a farm takes a lot more than marketing, as younger generation behind them,” O’Connor says. Woods soon discovered. In 2019, their first year, they planted Growing Christmas trees may be rewarding, but it’s also 3,800 seedlings. Fewer than a third of them survived. Woods a time-consuming commitment. “I love that we are a huge found himself deep in the study of how to grow trees — soil part of so many families’ traditions,” says Danielle Firkus, nutrients, sunlight, drought. A few years later, an infestation who recently moved back to the Midwest to be closer to her family and the farm, and still helps out during the of grubs killed or stunted many of the trees. Christmas season. But she now has a career as a pharmaWoods documented his learning curve on YouTube. The channel is a marketing tool, of course. But he says cist and can’t envision taking on the year-round labor of
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BOAR’S HEAD RESORT Nestled on 600 rolling acres and built on the site of an old grist mill, the Boar’s Head Resort is a Charlo esville tradition. Owned by the University of Virginia Foundation, it offers amenities for all ages designed to both embrace and evade winter’s chill. Through Jan. 6, visitors can take a twirl on an ice rink or enjoy Winter Wander, a half-mile lakeside stroll with light displays, fire pits, and food and beverages. “It’s a must-see for anyone visiting the Charlo esville area,” says spokesperson Joe Hanning. To beat the post-holiday blahs, visit Birdwood Golf, ranked eighth best in the state by Golf Week Magazine, or The Spa, renovated in 2021. Try your hand at squash or scale the three-story indoor rock wall. Multiple food options are available, including Millstone Pizza Kitchen, a new in-house delivery service. Drive time: 1 hour
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COURTESY BOAR’S HEAD RESORT
200 Ednam Drive, Charlottesville, 844-611-8066; boarsheadresort.com
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REGIONAL RETREATS FOR YOUR NEXT VACAY Virginia has a little bit of everything: mountains and beaches, cities and historical sites, outdoor adventure and five-star stays. Whether you’re looking for a place to gather your grandkids for the holidays or a retreat for relaxing when the festivities are over, these road-trip reachable resorts offer all the best amenities while avoiding the expense and insanity of flights, letting you spend your next vacation worlds away but closer to home. — By Paula Peters Chambers
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KESWICK HALL 701 Club Drive, Keswick, 434-979-3440; keswick.com
Built in 1912 as a private villa, Keswick Hall was transformed into a boutique hotel in the 1990s by Bernard Ashley, husband of the famed designer Laura Ashley. The property recently reopened a er a multi-year, multi-million-dollar renovation and now offers 80 luxury accommodations, including a 1,600-square-foot presidential suite, a spa with smallbatch organic products and fine dining at Marigold by chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten, where cuisine is seasonal and o en sourced from the resort’s own farm. Guests can play Full Cry, the Pete Dye-designed golf course; lounge in the heated, chlorine-free Horizon Pool; or enjoy a custom la e in the Garden Room, with expansive views of the Southwest Mountains of the Blue Ridge. “The property has hosted Queen Elizabeth II, Mick Jagger and Michael J. Fox,” says Ryan Ocker, director of sales. Drive time: 1 hour
KINGSMILL RESORT 1010 Kingsmill Road, Williamsburg, 800-832-5665; kingsmill.com
Located on the banks of the James River and steeped in Southern tradition, Kingsmill Resort gained prominence for its three world-class golf courses designed by Arnold Palmer, Curtis Strange and Pete Dye. Bicycles and fishing equipment rentals are available year-round, as is the chance to enjoy a meal around the firepit at the marina. In addition to golf, the resort offers outdoor tennis and pickleball courts. A major renovation of the fitness center, which offers an indoor pool and workout space, was scheduled for completion in November. For real luxury, reserve The Estate, a 7,000-square-foot private residence on a bluff overlooking the James. “This is a completely different experience,” says Julie O’Neil, director of marketing and public relations. Drive time: 1 hour
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LANSDOWNE RESORT 44050 Woodridge Parkway, Leesburg, 703-729-8400; lansdowneresort.com
OPPOSITE PAGE, FROM TOP: COURTESY KESWICK HALL; COURTESY KINGSMILL RESORT; THIS PAGE: COURTESY LANSDOWNE RESORT
As a dedicated wellness destination, Lansdowne harmonizes the best of Eastern and Western therapies and traditions. Through December, guests can enjoy the season with fully bedecked surroundings and visiting carolers. Guests are encouraged to start the new year with conscious selfcare. “Whether you seek to put your life in balance with a wellness retreat, make time for self-care with a spa getaway, improve your golf game, embark on a culinary journey or simply relax with every fiber of your being, there is a stay package to put you on the right path,” says Carol Smith, director of sales and marketing. Drive time: 2 hours
CAVALIER RESORT
THE TIDES INN
4200 Atlantic Ave., Virginia Beach, 757-425-8555; cavalierresortvb.com
480 King Carter Drive, Irvington, 804-438-5000; tidesinn.com
The Grand Dame of the Virginia Beach oceanfront when it was built in 1927 — and known for welcoming 10 U.S. presidents — the Cavalier has recently been restored to a new level of grandeur ahead of its centennial. Throughout December, the hotel sports thousands of twinkling lights and hosts meet-andgreets with ballet dancers from “The Nutcracker” and photo opportunities with Mr. and Mrs. Claus. In the new year, romance packages help couples reconnect a er the hectic holiday season. Stay in one of the heritage suites, each designed by one of the hotel’s six partners, have a couples massage at the SeaHill Spa, take a plunge in the historic indoor pool or try a tasting at Tarnished Truth Distilling Co., the only distillery located in a hotel in the United States. “It sits where the original laundry facility for the [Cavalier] once was,” notes Justin Beale, vice president of sales and marketing. Drive time: 2 hours
Nestled in a scenic cove, the Tides Inn makes the most of its soothing views. A new nature boardwalk hugs the coastline and invites reflection. Or enjoy coffee at the marina, watching watercra come and go. Depending on the weather, you may even be able to charter a pontoon boat tour of the area or rent a kayak to explore on your own. Winter brings “Chesapeake Bay Bubbles,” the inn’s collaboration with Moët Chandon. Guests may reserve a private waterside “bubble,” in which they can enjoy a dining experience complete with heater, furniture, branded Moët pillows and blankets, and Champagne, of course. If weather forces guests inside, pampering spa treatments and hands-on activities are readily available. “Our art program manager keeps our guests of all ages entertained in our Makers Space,” says Jason Trollip, managing director. “Theresa [Schneveis] helps bring the outdoors in with nature-inspired programming from watercolors to ceramics.” Drive time: 1.5 hours
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