Happy returns from trees
Selling Christmas trees has turned into a growing business with many dividends for a Wakefield couple.
Not only is it a healthy side business for Anne and David Bolton, a chunk of the proceeds go to charity and then there are the warm, festive feelings from their customers.
‘‘Everyone is really Christmassy and happy, it’s fun and really cheerful,’’ Anne says.
The Boltons started their Wakefield Christmas Trees farm with pines and douglas firs 14 years ago.
They have about 2000 trees on their land, which take four years or more to grow into a Christmassized tree.
To make sure they have a good supply each year they only sell about a quarter of the trees.
Anne said they sold out every year, and last year they sold out two weeks before Christmas.
This year demand had again been good and they only had a few trees left.
The Boltons run the Christmas tree company as a side business, and it had grown a lot in the last decade.
The pine trees sell for $25 and douglas firs are $30.
Anne said they donate a quarter of their profits to a charity each year. In recent years they have bought 40 Christmas food parcels for the gypsy village of Mosna in Romania.
Anne said David used to work in a nursery when he was young and he loved growing trees for a living now.
The couple’s good friends Anthony and Carole Rendle, from Richmond, picked out their tree at the Bolton’s farm.
Carole said every year they go out to the farm to pick their tree for the festive season.
‘‘We like the smell of the tree and the tradition really.
‘‘And we like to support our friends.’’
She said they had been married for 42 years and this year was the first time they considered perhaps not getting a tree because it was so much work.
But with their children and grandchildren coming over from around New Zealand to spend Christmas with them, they caved in.
Anthony said as Christians, they were looking forward to Christmas, spending it with their family and remembering Christ’s birth.