Christmas Is Coming; It’s Time To Pick Out A Tree

Charlie Scarano can’t understand why anyone would want pink snow on a Christmas tree.

But Scarano doesn’t ask. He just does his job, spraying colored flocking of “snow” on firs and pines for customers who think the perfect tannenbaum has a certain pinkish tint.

“People are weird,” said the owner of Wonderland Trees, a Christmas tree lot set up on Pines Road a block south of Sprague Avenue.

“It’s just gaudy. Who would want that in their house?”

Scarano is one of dozens of temporary Christmas tree sellers who have set up around the Valley in the past week, waiting for families to stop by to pick through the boughs before Dec. 25.

Along Sprague Avenue alone, there are tree lots set up next to fast-food restaurants, in grocery store parking lots, on vacant parcels and abandoned acres. Names range from Ed’s Christmas Tree-dition to Robs Fresh Firs to Lee’s Fresh Cut.

Scarano is one of the few Valley Christmas tree salesmen who sprays faux snow on freshly cut evergreens to customers’ specifications. He’s been in the Christmas tree business for years.

Scarano’s father began the seasonal business 40 years ago. He employs seven people, mostly family and neighbors, to handle about 2,000 trees coming into the former nursery site.

Scarano said he spends about $40,000 for trees.

It’s not a business that makes you rich, says Scarano, who works at a Montana veterinary clinic 11 months of the year. Still, he likes it.

“It’s a business, and it’s a lot of fun. It gets in your blood. People are always in a good mood,” he said.

Most Christmas tree businesses carry Douglas, noble and grand firs, and Scotch pines. Sizes range from three to 23 feet.

The most popular sellers are the symmetrical six- to eight-footers.

Some customers spend hours walking around the lot looking for that perfect tree.

“It’s funny, but you wouldn’t look at a Christmas tree as a major investment. But people treat it like it is,” said Wayne Moss, who set up his Christmas tree lot on Sprague near Sullivan Road the day after Thanksgiving.

Moss, the news assignment manager at KREM-TV, works during his off hours at the business his father started eight years ago.

Camped out in a silver Airstream RV, Moss spends the night overseeing his forest of firs.

“My wife hates it because she becomes the Christmas widow,” he said.

Things have been slow this week at many of the Valley’s tree lots.

Because Thanksgiving fell so late this year, many people don’t realize that Christmas is less than three weeks away, he said.

“It would be nice if it would snow,” Moss said. “It gets people in the mood for Christmas.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo