O Christmas tree!
Annual search for the perfect verdant icon is a family tradition
ALTHOUGH PLENTY HAS changed in the past 50 years or so, some family traditions continue to live on. That’s particularly true in the Clayton household, where searching for the perfect Christmas tree has become a yearly event, even as the family has branched out to include several households.
Carol Clayton still remembers piling into her father’s truck as a little girl and driving with her family to the Christmas tree farms in Arvin and Lamont.
“We couldn’t wait to get it home and start decorating the way we wanted the tree to be,” she said.
More than 50 years later, the customary trek to find that perfect tree continues, even after her father Charles Johnson — affectionately known as “Buddy” to the grandkids — died several years ago.
In recent year’s Carol’s husband, Bruce, and her son, Devin, along with her nephew, Germaine, have led the hunting party, with Carol and her extended family providing much-needed moral support.
“I still go out to go get it just because it feels so natural because as a kid we used to go out and pick out the tree,” said Clayton, who shares family-gathering responsibilities with her son Devin and daughter-in-law Ashley, among others.
And with each journey, not just any tree will do. The stop at a local lot must end with the “perfect tree.”
So what makes the perfect tree? That’s obviously subjective, but for Clayton there’s a basic criteria that must be met before a tree can be loaded and brought home.
“We want to be able to smell the tree,” Clayton said. “If it’s cut right, if it stands perfectly ... . We don’t like too big of a tree, just enough for a topper to place on top because we still want that shiny star that lights up.”
For Clayton, and for many others, the shape of the tree is just part of what
makes the Christmas tree acceptable to her high standards. It simply serves as the canvas for her vision of perfection, which is highly personal.
“We want to be able to put (pictures of) our deceased family on there, especially our father,” said Clayton, who still enjoys wearing a Santa hat with Christmas lights around her neck while decorating. “And angels and what-not on the tree. Decorate it. The family is all into basketball, so we have Lakers’ bulbs, and we’ll put those on there. That’s a tradition, but we still have to go (pick out a tree). That’s a must.”
‘Fluffing’ the perfect tree
For many years, picking out a tree was serious business for Jennifer Johnson. The Bakersfield High graduate learned the importance of finding the perfect tree from her mother, Linda, who took the process to a different level, Johnson said with a laugh.
“When we used to get trees when we were younger, my mom used to make my dad go out to several Christmas tree lots until she found the perfect tree,” Johnson said. “It couldn’t be crooked, it could not have any bald spots, it had to be full, it had to be a certain size. Then she would spend pretty much all day putting the lights on. She would kind of fluff the tree out and pull the branches and just get it all perfect and then spend several hours getting the lights right.”
The process of sculpting the yearly Christmas tree, called “fluffing” in their household, was passed down to Johnson.
“My mom got me into the Christmas trees, where it just has to be perfect,” Johnson said. “I make it very artistic. It’s just how I am. It takes me like three weeks to decorate a tree. And it’s because I take such time on it. It’s like I do it in stages.”
Johnson’s definition of the perfect Christmas tree has evolved over the years, and it led her to switch to an artificial tree a few years ago.
“I’m not as patient putting lights on the tree like (my mom) was,” Johnson said. “But later on she started using an artificial tree, too, because my nephew was allergic to real trees. But I still have to make sure the tree is positioned right. And when I’m out looking for a tree, even if it’s artificial, it has to be full, it has to look real. It can’t look fake. It has to look like a real tree.”
Johnson has also started using artificial scents on the tree to make it smell more natural, and has added a rotating tree stand to assist in the decorating process.
“I’m like the Christmas decorating queen,” said Johnson, who is considering buying a real tree this year and placing artificial trees in other rooms in her house. “I love doing it. But I’m really
nitpicky. I spend hours just kind of shaping it up, making sure all the branches are spread out to give it that full look. I make sure all the lights are working and it’s placed right.”
Simple tradition
For John Harte, a professional photographer who also works as an adjunct communications professor at Bakersfield College and Cal State Bakersfield, a tabletop tree does the trick, as he showcased with a photo on a recent Facebook post.
“Here is my Christmas tree,” said Harte, referring to a photo of his tree on a shelf in his hallway closet. “It is all ready to go. I will remove it ... on Thanksgiving weekend, walk 14 steps to a small table in my living room ... set it on the table and leave it there until January 1, when I will ‘take it down’ by walking 14 steps back to the closet and putting it back on the shelf until next year.”
What makes the tree perfect?
For others, such as Mike Ross, selling “real” Christmas trees is a way of life. Ross is heading into his 22nd year in the business and will open his Mike’s Christmas Trees lot the day after Thanksgiving at a new location this year, on the corner of Snow and Allen roads.
Ross, who also owns and operates Christmas Town, understands that the perfect Christmas tree is unique to everyone.
“That’s a very subjective question because what makes it perfect is the customer,” Ross said. “Some customers like it narrow so it can fit into tight spaces in their living room and not take up the couch and the chair and everything else when they open them up. Some people put them in a room by a window all by themselves so they want a big, grand, wide tree.
“And then of course, ceiling height will determine the height of the tree or if they want just enough room to put the star on (top). The perfect Christmas tree depends on where the family is going to put the tree.”
To help accommodate his clientele, Ross tries to bring in a variety of trees to meet customers’ preferences.
“Probably 70 percent of our customers want a nice, full Christmas tree, but then 30 percent want it layered,” Ross said. “So the perfect Christmas tree is in the eye of the beholder.”
We’ll make that tree work. We’ll brighten it up and make it glow. Put our finishing touches on it, and that’s what matters most.” — Carol Clayton, explaining that no matter which tree is chosen, her family is more concerned with the finished product.
Top sellers
The biggest seller on Ross’ lot is the noble fir, which typically costs $80 to $100 for a 7- to 8-foot tree.
“It lasts the longest and the branches are strong so they can hold any type of ornament,” Ross said. “It’s just the No. 1 tree by far. It’s beautiful. The farmers do such a great job when they shear every year. It has such a nice tapered look with a nice angle. There’s other nice trees, but this is by far the most popular.”
It’s also typically the most expensive, Ross said. “That’s because it requires the most to grow,” he said. “The most fertilization, the most time, it takes twice as long to
grow as some of the other trees. Usually the price of the tree is a direct result of how long it took to grow the tree.”
For about the same cost, Ross offers an alternative, a Nordmann fir, which is a cross-pollination between a noble and a Fraser fir, that is hypoallergenic.
“Some of my friends are allergic to Christmas trees and this is the one tree they can put in their house that they don’t have a sneezing fit or allergic reaction to,” Ross said. “It looks somewhat similar to a noble, with the only downfall is it doesn’t have the smell.”
Another option is the Douglas fir, which generally costs about $35 to $40 for an 8-foot tree, Ross said.
“A Douglas fir is a good tree; it’s a pretty tree,” Ross said. “It smells great. It’s probably by far the best-smelling tree, maybe next to a grand fir. The fragrance is a little stronger on that tree than a noble. Other people might argue with me, to be honest, but just on a tree lot, I think I can smell a Douglas fir a little more prominent than a noble.”
But no matter which tree is chosen, Clayton is more concerned with the finished product.
“We’ll make that tree work,” she said. “We’ll brighten it up and make it glow. Put our finishing touches on it, and that’s what matters most.”