The North Carolina Christmas Tree • Special Choose & Cut Package at The Mast Farm Inn which includes 2 FREE Christmas Gifts for you, your spouse, family or friends. • Come experience North Carolina’s Choose and Cut Christmas Tree Capital; visit a tree farm and roam across tree-covered hillsides hunting the perfect Christmas tree. Valle Crucis in Watauga County, renowned as the “Choose and Cut Capital of North Carolina”, is centrally located among the most entertaining and scenic Choose and Cut farms across the region.
Reserve at the best available rate for room, cottage or cabin of your choice, and receive two Mast Farm Inn Stoneware Coffee Mugs by Deneen Pottery FREE! This special package is available at any time between Monday, November 30th to Wednesday, December 17th, 2015.
If you have a specific choose and cut farm in mind from the list below, please consult their websites (links provided below), for the days and times they are open to the public for choose & cut activities. Also just below this special offer, you will also find a wealth of information on Choose & Cut farms in our area, as well as on the history of the North Carolina Christmas Tree. • Reserve Now
Your FREE gifts are two "Christmas Gift Wrapped" Mast Farm Inn stoneware coffee mugs, made exclusively for the Inn by Deneen Pottery. Family Owned, Made in the USA, Deneen Pottery, is based in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Deneen was founded in 1972 by Peter and Mary Deneen with the simple goal of providing exceptional, handcrafted, stoneware. Peter and Mary studied ceramics and pottery at Luther College and from master potter Marguerite Wildenhain. Peter earned his MA at the University of Northern Iowa. With more than 30 years of experience, Deneen Pottery has emerged as the premier high-end producer of custom stoneware in the US. The process of hand making pottery is time consuming and labor intensive. Twenty-four pairs of hands will touch each piece during its production. While each piece is uniform in size and shape, every one is created by hand, making it unique. To benefit from this special offer we will need to see a receipt from one of the Watauga County Christmas Tree Association farms, or a tree in or on your car or truck :-)
"Choosing your own Christmas tree from a tree farm is a popular and memorable holiday experience for families visiting North Carolina. Many families are making a vacation of it. Some Christmas tree farms offer Christmas-themed crafts and gifts, hot cocoa or cider, cookies, hayrides, and other activities as well as spectacular views."
DESCRIPTION
Characteristics, Features, Benefits, & Advantages • Best available rate for room, cottage or cabin of your choice for the time frame reserving, and receive two Mast Farm Inn Stoneware Coffee Mugs by Deneen Pottery FREE!
Includes • Lodging & country gourmet breakfast for two each morning, and 2 FREE Gifts
Cost • Reserve at the best available rate for room, cottage or cabin of your choice for the time frame reserving, and receive two Mast Farm Inn Stoneware Coffee Mugs by Deneen Pottery FREE!
Reserve Now • www.themastfarminn.com/reservations-specials
Lodging Options • See rooms, cottages and cabins by clicking here, see best available rates by clicking here
Dining Options • See dining options by clicking here
Optional Extras • Numerous options available, contact us by click here for special requests
CONDITIONS & TERMS
• Minimum Stay ~ 2 nights
• Maximum Stay ~ 3 nights
• May Be Reserved No Earlier Than ~ 4 weeks prior to scheduled date of arrival
• Must Be Reserved No Later Than ~ 1 week prior to scheduled date of arrival
• Maximum Occupancy ~ For Rooms: Limited to two persons, no extra persons in rooms ~ For cottages & cabins: Limited to 4 person maximum, each extra persons beyond double occupancy in cabins & cottages are billed at $25 per person per day. Children over 2 are considered an extra person.
• Deposit required ~ The standard deposit
• Cancelation Policy ~ Full refund minus a $35 processing fee if cancelled 31 days or more prior to scheduled arrival, 50% refund if cancelled between 31-15 days prior to scheduled arrival, Billed completely without refund if cancelled 14 days or less prior to scheduled date of arrival
• To benefit you must request this special when reserving, this rate cannot be applied to reservations already made
• Offer cannot be combined with any other discounts, special offers, packages, promotions, gift certificates or packages
America’s Christmas Tree Capital • Come experience America’s Christmas Tree Capital. Below you will find a map of Choose & Cut farms which are members of the Watauga County Christmas Tree Association. Below the map you will find brief descriptions and links to each of the member farms which have websites. To see a complete list of the member farms, which includes those without websites, click here. All farms listed on the map below are less than a half hour drive from the Inn. Half are within fifteen minutes. The number next to each farm, in their respective descriptions below, refers to their location on this map. While some of the farms are open the entire time between between Monday, November 30th and Wednesday, December 17th, 2015, most have specific dates they are open. If you wish to choose your tree from a specific farm, please make sure that farm is open for Choose & Cut activities for the time frame you would like to reserve.
Appalachian Evergreens • 1
Blowing Rock, North Carolina • www.appevergreens.com • "Real Fraser Fir Christmas trees grown in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Boone, North Carolina"
Bear Wallow at Long Ridge Farms • 3
Sugar Grove, North Carolina • www.longridgefarms.com • "For more than 35 years, Long Ridge Farms has been growing Fraser fir and white pine Christmas Trees. We nurture our trees year-round and offer quality products to the public through our Choose & Cut business, Bear Wallow at Long Ridge Farms."
Big Ridge Tree Farm • 4
Banner Elk, North Carolina • www.bigridgetreefarm.com • "Our farm is a family operation that specializes in Choose and Cut Fraser Fir trees. Our first trees were planted in 1986 and we do most of our own work and take much pride in the quality and beauty of our trees."
Circle C Tree Farms • 8
Boone, North Carolina• www.circlectreefarms.com • "Circle C Tree Farm is a family owned Christmas Tree farm offering both a full-service Choose and Cut experience as well as wholesale sales. Located in the beautiful mountains of Boone, North Carolina, Circle C is the ideal place to bring your family and choose a perfect Christmas Tree."
Cool Springs Nursery • 10
Deep Gap, North Carolina • www.coolspringsnursery.com • "Growing North Carolina Fraser Fir Christmas Trees since 1980. 2011 State Grand Champion, 2012 National True Fir Champion. We continue to deliver superlative product and tireless customer service to ensure our customers, and their customers, have a Merry Christmas."
Cornett Deal Christmas Tree Farm • 11
Vilas, North Carolina • www.cdtreefarm.com • "We are a family owned and operated Christmas tree farm, specializing in growing and selling both choose and cut and wholesale Christmas trees, featuring top quality Fraser Fir trees and wreaths."
Ewing’s Fraser Fir Farm • 14
Vilas, North Carolina • www.ewingsfraserfirfarm.com • "For over 20 years families have been making it an annual tradition to head to our farm to choose their Christmas tree. Our customers enjoy walking through the thousands of trees and enjoying the view, while deciding on the perfect Christmas tree for their home."
Good Shepherd Trees • 16
Blowing Rock, North Carolina • www.goodshepherdtrees.com • "We invite you to visit and let us become part of your Christmas tradition. You can select any tree on the property and we will cut it down, wrap it and secure it to your vehicle. Wreaths and garland are also available. "
Greene Pine Farm • 17
Boone, North Carolina • www.greenepinefarm.com • "At Greene Pine Christmas Tree Farm our Christmas trees are grown between 3,200-3,900 feet above sea level, making it one of the highest elevated farms in the High Country. The higher the elevation, the better the Fraser Firs. We also have many exciting activities during the season."
J & D Tree Farms • 19
Boone, North Carolina • www.jdtreefarm.com • "Dorothy and I established J & D Tree Farms in 1983. Our farm is located in Watauga County at about 4000 feet in elevation. I am the past president of the Watauga County Nurserymen’s Association. Bring the family for a weekend to the Boone and Blowing Rock area. Visit our farm, enjoy the beautiful scenery, and choose the tree that is sure to brighten your holiday. "
Longview Farm Choose & Cut • 20
Boone, North Carolina • www.longviewfarm.info • "Longview Farm is at a high elevation, around 4200 feet, and has an almost 360-degree view of Grandfather Mountain and Beech and Sugar Mountain Ski Resorts from atop Howards Creek Road. We offer hayrides, hot chocolate and other amenities that make a Choose & Cut trip to the High Country a yearly family tradition."
Panoramic View Christmas Tree Farm • 22
Boone, North Carolina • www.panoramictreefarm.com • "Panoramic View Christmas Tree Farm: a place where your family outing will create a memorable experience! While choosing your perfect Christmas trees and wreaths, the entire family will enjoy feeding and petting the cows with newborn calves, group hayrides, and horse rides for the children."
RRR Tree Farm • 23 & 24
Laurel Knob & Todd, North Carolina • www.rrrtreefarm.com • "RRR Tree Farm has been growing family traditions and Christmas trees for well over 20 years. Imagine how excited we were when the children of our customers started introducing us to their children, ensuring that the third generation would continue their traditions."
Swinging Bridge Farm • 25
Deep Gap, North Carolina • www.swingingbridgefarm.com • "Visit our Choose and Cut tree farm and bring home a fresh cut fraser fir for Christmas! Our farm is in the beautiful Blue Ridge mountains. Pick out a tree, and we’ll cut it, bale it, and secure it to your car. In the meantime you can sip complimentary hot cider, explore the farm, or venture across our famous swinging bridge."
Turtle Creek Choose & Cut • 27
Boone, North Carolina • www.facebook.com/TurtleCreekChooseandCut • "Turtle Creek Choose & Cut is a family owned Christmas Fraser Fir tree farm right outside the city limits of Boone! The Greene and Gragg families look forward to seeing you this year!"
What Fir! Tree Farm • 29
Boone, North Carolina • www.whatfirtreefarm.com • "Our farm produces some of the most beautiful and healthy 4 – 14ft Fraser Fir Christmas Trees in the region. How healthy? Well, we haven’t sprayed any pesticides or herbicides here for almost 5 years! Our goal is to make your holiday season joyful and bountiful while keeping our environment whole."
The North Carolina Christmas Tree • "…to walk in eloquent silence with self-contained firs, is to learn what real companionship is." ~ L.M. Montgomery, "The Golden Road"
"Choosing your own Christmas tree from a tree farm is a popular and memorable holiday experience for families visiting North Carolina. Many families are making a vacation of it. Some Christmas tree farms offer cabins for overnight stays as well as Christmas-themed crafts and gifts, hot cocoa or cider, cookies, hayrides, and other activities as well as spectacular views. In a typical year, North Carolina harvests around 5 million trees at 1,600 tree farms, making it the most prolific tree-producing state in the east."
Getting Started: How Christmas Trees Came to Be Grown in the United States
For most Americans a decorated tree is the centerpiece of the Christmas holidays, but when you think about it, it is a curious habit to bring a tree into the house, take such pains to stand it back up straight, keep it alive as long as possible, and spend hours to cover it with lights and decorations. Yet a Christmas tree has become such a part of the holiday that for most, it isn’t Christmas without it. • Click Here For More Information
Why Fraser Fir?
Fraser fir is part of a remnant forest from the last ice age. The spruce-fir forests of the southern Appalachians are a unique habitat, now found only at the highest elevations of Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee. Encompassing such interesting sounding peaks as Mount Rogers, Grandfather Mountain, Mount Mitchell, Richland Balsam, and Clingman’s Dome, the spruce-fir forests are now islands in what used to be a vast forest. • Click Here For More Information
How Fraser Fir Made It Off the Mountain and into Christmas
The reason why Fraser fir made it off the top of the highest mountains to become a major agricultural commodity in western North Carolina is two-fold. First of all – simply put – it is a superior Christmas tree and no doubt it would have been recognized as such eventually no matter what the circumstances. But the other reason is just as important. Farmers in western North Carolina needed something to grow that they could grow better than anyone else in the country. That was something they had never had before. • Click Here For More Information
Starting an Association
A meeting was held on November 5, 1958 and was attended by many people growing Christmas trees. The forestry field meeting was held at W. W Braswell’s in Montezuma, Ira M. Vance’s in Pineola where “balsams” were planted out in a field, Vaughan’s greenhouses where plastic was used in transplant beds, and Anthony Lake Nursery where balsam beds at various stages of growth could be found. Hampton and Gilliam helped host the meeting. • Click Here For More Information
Early Days: the 1960s
In a Progressive Farmer article, the need for Christmas trees produced in the Southeast was discussed. According to Johnson, four out of every five Christmas trees sold in the South that year were shipped from northern states or Canada. This amounted to 15 million trees and represented $36 million sent out of the region. In 1962 the South produced less than 11% of the Christmas trees in the U.S. Nationwide in 1964 there were almost 41 million trees sold with an estimated value of more than $100 million. • Click Here For More Information
The 1970s
President Franklin Peirce, the 14th President of the US was the first to set up a Christmas tree in the White House in 1856 for his family’s use. In 1889, President Benjamin Harris set up an official White House Christmas tree (Albers & Davis, 1997). This tradition continued until Theodore Roosevelt who banned Christmas trees from the White House for a time. • Click Here For More Information
The 1980s
The 1980s saw many changes to western North Carolina, the NCCTA and the business of growing Christmas trees. Sadly, one of those changes was the death of Ken Perry who died of a massive heart attack in his home on October 10, 1981. Perry, along with Waightstill Avery, had shouldered much of the responsibility for farm-based research during the 1970s. Even after I started working in November 1988, people were still talking about his contributions to the industry, regretful at his untimely passing. • Click Here For More Information
The Last Twenty Years
By 1990, the NCCTA had been around for more than 30 years. The Fraser fir Christmas tree industry was well established. Frasers had taken over an approximately 15% of the market share in the US market – a ratio that has only slightly increased to this day. Many looked at the industry and thought like Sandy Wall, quoted above, that growers had it pretty easy, swapping trees for money. By 1995, North Carolina ranked third in the U.S. in Christmas tree sales, behind the Pacific Northwest and Michigan. • Click Here For More Information
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