FROM FARM TO FAMILY ROOM

PROFILES

MANOR’S COPPAGE CHRISTMAS TREES

Story By ALLEN ALLNOCH

FROM FARM to Family Room Manor’s Coppage Christmas Trees

Offers a Rich Holiday Experience for Area Families

There’s something innately charming about a visit to a Christmas tree farm. The shared experience of walking the rows … the selection, cutting and loading of a tree … the enjoyment of its fresh scent – it’s all part of a meaningful holiday ritual for those who value real over artifi cial.

“I really enjoy growing a high-quality tree,” says Dan Coppage, who owns Coppage Christmas Trees in Manor with his wife, Cindy. “Showing a child that real Christmas trees can be grown in Georgia, and are available for them to choose and cut, is a large part of the satisfaction of growing trees.”

Dan and Cindy, both Ware County natives, have been growing and selling Christmas trees since 2013. Their time on the land goes back much further to 1989, when they moved from Jesup to live on the Inman farm that was part of Cindy’s family. They’re now retired from their original vocations – Cindy as a 30-year schoolteacher and Dan from a career in timber procurement and forest land management.

“Growing Christmas trees was a natural o shoot of my career,” says Dan, a graduate of the University of Georgia School of Forest Resources. “Growing trees for a small farm is not a fulltime job, but it does require attention almost every week of the year.”

Blake, Kayla, Lilly and Mackey Crumbley search for the perfect Christmas tree at Dan and Cindy Coppage’s farm. Photo by Joy Sumner Photography

Dan oversees about 1,500 trees made up of three varieties: Murray Cypress (the most popular), Carolina Sapphires, and Fraser Firs from North Carolina. He says they sell about 350 each season, with Cindy leading the sales e ort and a few local teenagers on hand to help during the busiest periods.

Dan’s duties include replanting trees each January, fertilizing, spraying to keep several varieties of fungus at bay, mowing a lot of grass, and shaping the trees twice a year.

That last part is extremely important – “they don’t grow that way naturally,” Dan says of the familiar triangular profi le that graces so many living rooms.

There’s also the challenge posed by too much moisture in the soil. “Christmas trees like very well-drained soil, which is hard to come by in Manor,” Dan says.

The payo for the care and feeding of all those trees comes when families show up in late autumn, each looking for just the right one for their home.

“Cindy enjoys visiting with the families who come to cut their own Christmas tree,” Dan says. “Seeing her former students that she taught in the second grade, now with children of their own, come out to enjoy the experience together is a high point of our selling year.”

Coppage Christmas Trees opens for business the weekend before Thanksgiving and continues sales until inventory is depleted for the year. The Coppages encourage area residents to follow the growing season and stay informed about important dates on their Facebook page, which can be found at facebook.com/ coppagechristmastrees.

“You can cut your own tree or we will cut and load it if you aren’t comfortable doing it yourself,” Dan says.

Even if you choose the latter option, don’t worry – it won’t diminish the Christmas tree farm experience one bit. OL

LEFT: Dan, Cindy and Miss Priss stand among the trees – some 1,500 in all – that make Coppage Christmas Trees a cherished holiday experience.

PHOTO BY COURTNEY BARBER RENSHAW

ABOVE: Cindy examines a mature Murray Cypress, one of three species the Coppages sell.

PHOTO BY COURTNEY BARBER RENSHAW

ABOVE: Pint-sized pair: Bette Coppage, Dan and Cindy’s granddaughter, poses with a seedling that will be someone’s Christmas tree years from now.

PHOTO BY COURTNEY BARBER RENSHAW

“CINDY ENJOYS VISITING WITH THE FAMILIES WHO COME TO CUT THEIR OWN CHRISTMAS TREE.”

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