For customers, lots to pick from

Each year after Thanksgiving, an instant grove of evergreens sprouts from the asphalt parking lot at Runge Furniture Store.

For 15 years, Mike Tuel has staked out this corner in Coeur d’Alene’s midtown. The U.S. Forest Service technician will spend the next four weeks camped out in a trailer in the middle of his tree lot, hawking Christmas trees and extolling the virtues of fresh-cut evergreens.

“If you want plastic, you can get plastic, but it doesn’t seem like Christmas,” Tuel said. “We get some customers who have tried artificial trees, but they end up coming back to us.”

Last year, U.S. households bought 27.1 million fresh Christmas trees, compared with 9 million artificial trees, according to the National Christmas Tree Association. It was the first time in several years that sales of real trees have increased, a hopeful sign for an industry losing ground to plastic imports from China.

On the real vs. fake question, there’s no doubt about Tuel’s allegiance. About 75 percent of his sales come from repeat customers, he said. “I know they’re not back because of my personality, so it must be the trees,” said the St. Maries resident. “People in Coeur d’Alene are pretty picky about their trees.”

Tuel sells about 700 trees each year, harvested from local tree farms or hand-cut from national forestland. The going price is about $5 a foot. Sales typically peak during the first or second weekend in December.

Each species has merits, Tuel said. Grand firs are the most aromatic, though some customers prefer the cool tones of blue spruces. Sturdy Frasier firs also have a following. But the pick of the lot, in Tuel’s view, is the alpine fir. The graceful cone shape and widespread branches make it a natural beauty, he said. There’s no shearing involved.

“God put this together,” he said, patting the trunk of a 10-foot Alpine fir.

Since Alpine firs don’t grow on tree farms, Tuel chains up his old pickup every year and heads to the high country to harvest about 30 trees. This year, he encountered 10 inches of snow.

Cliff and Cindy Bolinger count themselves among Tuel’s regular customers. They picked out a grand fir Saturday morning, with plans to decorate it with poinsettias and gold trim.

“It smells so good in the house,” Cindy Bolinger said. “And it lasts a long time without losing its needles.”

Anchor House also had an instant forest set up on its lawn Saturday morning. Selling Christmas trees is an annual fund-raiser for the Coeur d’Alene home for troubled youths. Teenage boys got quick lessons in retail sales and tree identification before the first customers arrived.

“Grand fir has flat needles. A balsam fir is more rounded,” explained Mike Thayer, a youth specialist.

The home will sell about 450 trees this season. The kids involved learn sales skills and how to interact with the public, said D.V. Moyer, Anchor House’s operations manager.

Thirteen-year-old Hunter Vandegriff also got a crash course in tree identification at a Boy Scout tree lot near Silver Lake Mall.

“Grand fir, Frasier fir, blue spruce,” his dad coached him. Colored ribbons helped kids and adults keep track of the trees. A family friend, Dave Daboll, dropped by to pick up a $40 Frasier fir.

“They pumped these trees up so much that they must be the most beautiful tree in North Idaho,” said Daboll, who also left the lot with a string of colored lights from the Boy Scouts.

Hayden residents Mark and Raelene Fisher, meanwhile, selected a 6-foot-tall grand fir. They planned to decorate it Saturday, so their daughter could get in on the family ritual before she heads back to Seattle today for college classes.

“It’s traditional for us to decorate the tree the weekend after Thanksgiving,” Raelene Fisher said.

At Michael’s Arts and Crafts, 7 ½-foot fake Frasier firs were selling for $330, with lights and decorations attached. Kathryn Crawford was looking at $29.99 models of a 4-foot tree dubbed “Hillside Pine.” It also came with lights.

“Last year, I cut my tree down with an ax,” said Crawford, a Trout Creek, Mont., resident. “Now, I’m wondering, do I want a real one? Or do I want one that I can keep from year to year?”

She left the store with a tree in a box.

Jean Curran is a longtime fan of fake trees. The Rathdrum resident was buying three more Saturday to add to her indoor grove, which never dries out or loses its needles.

“Real trees make my allergies go wild,” Curran said. “I get itchy eyes. … You give up the nice scent of a real tree, but I put up real wreaths and burn candles.”