The nation’s capital celebrates the holidays with a Bury Christmas tree
For close to 30 years, Bury resident Bruce Kerr has been supplying Ottawa with a massive tree each holiday season. Technically speaking, his tree farm is in Island Brook, Kerr specified.
When asked how he became the goto guy for elite Christmas trees, Kerr replied modestly, “I don’t know; it’s just a tree.”
This year, there are two of Kerr’s Townships trees headed to Ottawa, both measuring around 55 feet high.
One was ordered by the city of Ottawa, and was being set up yesterday. The other will head over next week to stand inside the National Art Gallery, where the Prime Minister usually holds a Christmas party each year, Kerr said.
“It’s a lot of work to find them,” Kerr said, explaining that he sometimes has to procure the tree from neighbouring farms.
The tree then needs to be cut and let down gently with a crane to prevent any branches from being broken.
“It takes three or four days to tie it,” Kerr said, adding that it needs to be done on a day when it is not too cold.
Once properly tied, the trees get mounted onto a flatbed and head towards their new homes.
Kerr’s son Torry, who lives in Ottawa, is on the receiving end of the deliveries to help get the trees set up, an operation which involves many hands and a fair amount of specialized equipment.
Kerr said the tree bound for the art gallery needed special attention when being tied, because the doors to the building are only four feet wide. The tree also needs to be put on dollies and rolled 100 feet down an alley way to get into the building.
“Not everybody wants to tackle that,” Kerr said.
While he still supplies two of the most high profile Christmas trees in the country, Kerr used to send trees to other notable spots, including Times Square in New York City.
I did that for 10 years,” he said.
One of Kerr’s trees also enjoyed 15 minutes of fame in a classic holiday movie.
“Did you see Home Alone? That was my tree,” Kerr said.
“It got to be such a big job,” Kerr explained, that now as he is getting older, he takes less of the elite tree contracts.
The NYC trees were in the 80-foot range, and often required special lights and oversized signs for transportation. If ever the driver was stopped by police, Kerr said explaining where that the tree was headed to Times Square was all that the driver needed to say to continue unimpeded.
“It had to be on a schedule,” Kerr said. “They shut down a whole part of the city,” he said. A large crane has to be brought in to position the mammoth tree, so the timing needs to be just right to avoid causing major traffic issues in the city core.
Kerr even sent trees to Bahamas in the past. “There is so much paperwork and inspections,” Kerr said, that long distance shipping just wasn’t worth the trouble.
“People see the tree, and that’s it,” Kerr said, explaining that people don’t often wonder where it came from.
“I just do my job,” he said, not concerned with the celebrity his trees might garner.
Kerr’s farm has between 8000-9000 trees. “Most consumers want about 10-12 feet, max,” he said. He added that as long as there is a nice straight top to place a star or an angel, a tree can get away with a small hole in the middle.
“Most people like a good tree,” he said, happy to provide during the holiday season. In
One of Kerr’s 50-footers is already getting set up and will be lit by early next week. The other is in his front yard, and will make its way to the National Art Gallery next week.