{"id":430834,"date":"2025-12-07T11:16:15","date_gmt":"2025-12-07T11:16:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/430834\/"},"modified":"2025-12-07T11:16:15","modified_gmt":"2025-12-07T11:16:15","slug":"where-do-san-antonios-christmas-trees-come-from","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/430834\/","title":{"rendered":"Where do San Antonio’s Christmas trees come from?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Family after family wander between rows of pine and cypress trees. Parents inspect price tags and shapes, imagining how their stars and ornaments might look. Children run through the cool December air and toddlers bounce along in wagons as they all search for the perfect tree to cut down and take home for the holidays.<\/p>\n

Jeffery Seiler\u2019s family has run this 15-acre Christmas tree farm near Seguin for more than 40 years. He took over full-time from his father in 2001 and sees many of the same families come year after year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a lot of repeat customers. People have been coming here a long time,\u201d Seiler said.<\/p>\n

Christmas trees have been grown commercially at farms in Texas for decades, but industry experts say the supply of Texas-grown trees has exploded since 2020.<\/p>\n

Texas added 100 new Christmas tree farms between 2017 and 2022, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The acreage of Christmas tree farms nearly quadrupled in that time. <\/p>\n

There are several farms in the San Antonio area<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A lot of that growth had to do with the pandemic, said Frank Raley. He leads Texas A&M\u2019s Forest Service tree improvement and nurseries department and said Christmas tree growers benefited in 2020.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Families were eager to go outdoors and cut down their own Christmas trees at local choose-and-cut farms during the pandemic, Raley said. That trend has stuck. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt really blossomed during COVID,\u201d he said, adding that some farms have added other holiday activities like Christmas photos and sleigh rides to bring in customers.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been consistent, despite challenges from droughts. Seiler plants around 2,000 trees a year and opens the day after Thanksgiving. <\/p>\n

\"JefferyJeffery Seiler wraps a tree at Seiler Christmas Tree Farm on Dec. 5, 2025. Credit: Jasper Kenzo Sundeen \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n

Christmas tree growers and retailers are laser-focused on maintaining this new popularity and competing against the artificial tree market.<\/p>\n

\u201cBuying live Christmas trees in our industry is a plus,\u201d said Stan Reed, executive secretary of the Texas Christmas Tree Growers Association. \u201cThe competition is between live Christmas trees and artificial trees.\u201d<\/p>\n

Origins of Texas Christmas trees<\/p>\n

Texas-grown Christmas trees don\u2019t originally come from Texas.<\/p>\n

Raley said researchers at Texas A&M have been working with the Virginia Pine since the 1980s. They provide Texas tree growers with seeds and work together to breed more adaptable trees.<\/p>\n

He said researchers have bred trees for adaptability and shape, trying to get trees with the right branch distribution and strength.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of the farms are in East Texas, ranging from Texarkana to Houston,\u201d Raley said. \u201cBetween the soils and the climate, those conditions are perfect.\u201d<\/p>\n

Seiler grows a lot of Virginia Pines, along with the Lob Lolly, a native Texan tree, and Leyland and Carolina Sapphire cypress trees. <\/p>\n

\"\"Downtowners can pick up Christmas trees, wreaths and other holiday greenery at the pop-up tree lot at Travis Park in downtown San Antonio. Credit: Amber Esparza \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n

The Virginia Pine has been around so long, Raley added, that it\u2019s now considered a landrace. That means it\u2019s not native, but it\u2019s adapted to the Texas environment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ll stand a drought,\u201d Raley said. \u201cThey don\u2019t do well in wet conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Farmers can grow a six- to eight-foot tree in around five years, Raley said, and replant after every holiday season in anticipation of Christmases that won\u2019t take place for years.<\/p>\n

That means farmers have to balance this year\u2019s demand with growth for future years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still see trees out there, but I might save them for next year,\u201d Seiler said when surveying his farm.<\/p>\n

What kind of trees are sold at commercial lots?<\/p>\n

You might not see one of those trees at Christmas tree lots in San Antonio. That\u2019s because most Texas-grown Christmas trees are choose-and-cut. Many trees at local lots are from wholesalers in other parts of the country. Nearly 4 million trees were harvested in Oregon in 2022, for example.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re buying a Christmas tree in San Antonio, it might be coming from Oregon\u2019s McKenzie Farms. <\/p>\n

\"\"The Travis Park Christmas tree lot in downtown San Antonio has fresh trees grown in and shipped from Oregon. Credit: Amber Esparza \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n

Jim Donohue owns Holiday Hills Christmas Trees, which has 12 locations throughout South Texas<\/a>, including in New Braunfels, Boerne and now downtown San Antonio.<\/p>\n

Every year, he brings in thousands of trees from the Pacific Northwest. Trees are packed into refrigerated trucks filled with 1,500 pounds of ice to keep them fresh until January, Donohue said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Many of those are fir trees and take longer to grow \u2014 seven to nine years for Douglas Firs and up to 12 years for Noble Firs, which Donohue called the Cadillac of Christmas trees.<\/p>\n

Donohue said large farms like McKenzie also noticed an increase in demand during the COVID-19 pandemic. Wholesale Christmas tree farms in the Pacific Northwest have an oversupply now because of that bump in demand, he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve actually dropped our prices this year because there\u2019s such an oversupply in the Pacific Northwest,\u201d Donohue said. \u201cCustomers are noticing that at the lot level.\u201d<\/p>\n

Buying live<\/p>\n

Reed and the Texas Christmas Tree Growers\u2019 Association see the two options for live trees \u2014 buying choose-and-cut and heading to your local Christmas tree retail lot \u2014 as different markets. But competition between those two options isn\u2019t as important as competition with artificial Christmas trees, he said.<\/p>\n

Donohue also talks up the importance of live Christmas trees. That\u2019s why he was willing to drop his prices this year.<\/p>\n

\"\"Little reindeers made from Christmas tree stumps and logs are also available for purchase aside from trees and greenery at the pop-up Christmas tree lot at Travis Park in downtown San Antonio. Credit: Amber Esparza \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, the tradition is more important,\u201d he said. \u201cSelling a real Christmas tree is more important than earning an extra $2.\u201d<\/p>\n

Donohue is optimistic that live trees will be more competitive in the market this year. A vast majority of artificial Christmas trees are made overseas \u2014 85% are made in China, according to the National Christmas Tree Association \u2014 and now are subject to tariffs.<\/p>\n

Live Christmas trees are also more environmentally friendly. They use less plastic than artificial trees.<\/p>\n

If Texans want live trees, though, they\u2019ll have to move quickly. Seiler tells customers that most of his biggest trees are already gone. Last year, he closed up shop after the second week of December. This year could be even sooner. <\/p>\n

That\u2019s a trend across Texas, Reed added.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you wait until the second week in December, you might not get anything,\u201d Reed said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Family after family wander between rows of pine and cypress trees. Parents inspect price tags and shapes, imagining…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":430835,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5133],"tags":[5229,192073,200178,200179,200180,200181,200182,200183,200184,7202,200185,7203,200186,358,11426,200187,200188,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,200189,20705],"class_list":{"0":"post-430834","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-antonio","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-christmas-trees","10":"tag-frank-raleuy","11":"tag-frank-raley","12":"tag-holiday-hills-christmas-trees","13":"tag-jim-donohue","14":"tag-mckenzie-farms","15":"tag-national-christmas-tree-association","16":"tag-oregon-christmas-trees","17":"tag-san-antonio","18":"tag-san-antonio-christmas-trees","19":"tag-sanantonio","20":"tag-stan-reed","21":"tag-texas","22":"tag-texas-am","23":"tag-texas-christmas-tree-growers-association","24":"tag-texas-christmas-trees","25":"tag-tx","26":"tag-united-states","27":"tag-united-states-of-america","28":"tag-unitedstates","29":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","30":"tag-us","31":"tag-usa","32":"tag-virginia-pine","33":"tag-wc-750-1000"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115678006310652676","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=430834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430834\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/430835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}