ALVIN, Texas – With Thanksgiving in the rearview mirror, many families are spending the rest of the holiday weekend putting up the Christmas decorations. At the center of the decor, is the Christmas tree.
While some opt for the same artificial tree year after year, there’s still that old tradition of packing up the family and heading to the Christmas tree farm that’s lived on in some families for generations.
Recommended Videos
The Houston area is home to several tree farms, including Froberg’s Farm in Alvin.
Froberg’s Farm opens for the season
This weekend they opened for the season. To say they’ve been busy is an understatement.
Gage Goulding: “How many people have you seen here so far?”
Tyler Froberg: “A lot. Thousands.”
Tyler Froberg runs his family’s farm in Alvin. It’s one of the biggest farms in our area.
For him, this time of year is like the Super Bowl.
“It’s not just like we’ve been waiting 365 days for this. Right,” Froberg said. “We’ve been waiting over 1,200 days for this moment because these trees have taken us four years to raise.”
Hurricane Beryl’s impact on the farm
Each and every one of their 10,000 trees were knocked over by Hurricane Beryl earlier this year.
“All of our trees still have the kickstand on it from where we had to stand, every single one of them up,” he explains.
On top of that, there was a mounting worry that there could be a Christmas tree shortage after Hurricane Helene wiped out western North Carolina, which produces a fifth of the nation’s Christmas trees.
Could there be a shortage at Froberg’s Farm?
While the hurricane didn’t cause a shortage of Christmas trees here at Froberg’s Farms, there still could be a shortage.
The reason: So many people came out the first two days to find their Christmas tree, they might not have enough to last the rest of the season.
On Saturday, there was a steady stream of families walking through the market and into the field.
Families creating traditions at the tree farm
“There’s a lot more in the back, too,” said Christine Ulmer, who was there with her husband and parents.
“It’s kind of been like we started a family tradition,” she said. “And now we’re second year getting our own tree tradition.”
Once they found the tree they want, dad got down on all fours and sawed the tree down - just like they’ve been doing for years.
“The fact that we can provide them such a beautiful tree, we’re just so thankful for that,” Froberg said.
