Take your kids here - next year, because they're all picked over for 2009.
I decided that I was disgusted with the current crop of Christmas tree alternatives - trees on lots along major roads, Safeway, Home Depot, IKEA - everywhere overpriced dried out trees. This year, I wanted a real nice fresh Christmas tree. Alternately, for the Hippies out there, I had a blood lust - I wanted to kill a living thing for the holidays. Either way, I wanted a live, fresh Christmas tree.
So of course, I looked on Yelp and found Peter's review (I blame him!) and decided to run down highway 90 and give this place a try.
And, since it is the "holiday season", just for good measure I packed the car full of kids, because something told me that this was going to be one of those Winter Park Christmas tree farm places, and I knew that kids would get a kick out of running around and chasing Christmas trees ... well, you get the idea. Besides I might need help carrying the thing :-)
So, into the car we went, and after a 30 minute drive we arrived at ... and passed ... the tree farm. Fortunately Carnation is not a huge place, so I turned around and went back and parked. The place was COLD - the weather said that it might snow today (it did - just flurries - but that made it even better).
We parked, got out, corralled the kids, and headed straight for ... the restrooms (because women and little girls always have to go to the bathroom as soon as the car stops).
Surprise, who is sitting in the room next to the restrooms and gift shop but ... Santa Claus! So ... who wants to sit on Santa's lap and get their picture taken? Surprisingly, not too many (as they were little children and many were scared by the prospect). Santa's elves (female elves?) calmed and cajoled children while the took moderately priced holiday happy snaps.
For me, sitting watching the media debacle, there was entertainment in the form of an old (like 1950's old) coke machine that was OPEN - which meant that I could either (a) steal free bottled sodas (not!) or (b) open it up and show everyone how this antique refrigerator cum dispenser worked (which I did).
Of course, the point of the trip was to go get a Christmas tree. And, sure enough, there were ROWS and ROWS of live Christmas trees just WAITING for me to rush out there and butcher with my trusty saw (which they supply). So we proceeded to wander around the large open field - of stumps, because it is late in the season and a LOT of the trees already have been cut down - until we found a tree that all of the kids decided was just THE perfect Christmas tree. Then, with my trusty (borrowed) saw in hand, I swiftly moved in and ... er, cut down ... the defenseless conifer - which after "shaking and wrapping" I proceeded to lash (with twine supplied by the tree farm) to the top of my rugged four wheel drive vehicle for the trip back for later mounting. A very good deal if you ask me.
Oh, did I mention the bake sale (some local high school's robotics club - very much a non sequitur, hot cider, the gift store, the kettle corn, and the snow flurries, and the scenery and the nice leisurely drive?
So, yeah, nice place - a bit out of the way (a few miles south of Duvall as it turns out) but nice people and a well run operation.
My favorite quote from the visit - some guy to one of the workers at the tree farm asking about the price of his tree: "How will they know what to charge me?" Well, for starters, it's a CHRISTMAS TREE FARM - like they might have DONE this a couple of times before today!
Merry Christmas :-) read more