Most wonderful time of the year coming for Christmas tree producers

It was beginning to look a lot more like Christmas at Vanderklooster Christmas Trees, midway through November, with Camryn (left) and Mike preparing for the upcoming festive season. (Jeff Tribe photo)

Jeff Tribe, Echo Correspondent

The festive season is the most wonderful time of the year for Christmas tree producers. But it takes a little organized chaos to get there.

“Absolutely,” said Mike Vanderklooster of Vanderklooster Christmas Trees, a you-cut/pre-cut operation located just south of Sweaburg at 424847 Substation Road. “Always,” he added.

With Friday, Nov. 28’s opening circled on the family calendar, it was all hands on deck. Vanderklooster’s daughter Alexa was given a pass, sleeping after an overnight shift as a nurse, but her partner Sean Fitzpatrick, his Rock, Paper, Earth landscaping season having ramped down, was sequentially clearing leaves from the yard with a blower. Daughter Carmyn Vanderklooster, enjoying a break from working on a bio/poly sci Master’s Degree, was wading through a truckload of Fraser and Balsam Firs delivered earlier that day - two hours late due to traffic delays on the 400 series highways.

Inside the operation’s current shop, Vanderklooster looked past an array of potted Christmas urns to an open excavation for an expansion, its concrete foundation pour delayed by a dump of snow earlier that week.

“It looks like this - and then we get it all going and it looks Christmassy.”

Vanderklooster began planting trees for a you-cut operation in 1997, envisioning a personally and financially productive side hustle from his regular job. Ten years later, he began bringing trees in to establish a business that today includes both pre and you-cut options, urns and wreaths, and this year will also feature cookies, brownies, donuts and hot chocolate for sale.

“It’s taken 15 or 20 years to actually get going.”

While the latter part of November and December are the busiest months in terms of sales, Christmas tree farming is a year-round responsibility. Beyond planting and pruning, producers battle predatory bugs, disease and fungus, have to mow and weed their plantation, and must keep trees watered, particularly in a ‘big-time dry’ summer like 2025. Vanderklooster has added equipment and four rows of trees, now watered through drip irrigation. But from an old-school drip approach for the balance of his farm, hand-bombing water into repurposed plastic pails with a small hole drilled in them, a lot of physical labour goes into turning seedlings into holiday centrepieces.

“A lot of this is still hands-on.”

Since retirement, Vanderklooster’s hobby has become more of a full-time occupation, pride and passion for growing something from nothing.

“And I just enjoy it,” says the active member of the Christmas Tree Farmers of Ontario (CTFO). “Keeps the brain going, gives me something to do… purpose, and I like being outside.”

It remains very much a family operation with Vanderklooster sourcing additional labour during peak periods through his kids or their friends. Beginning Nov. 28, Vanderklooster Christmas Trees will be open Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. until Christmas, or until they are sold out. As a concession to modern technology, the business has added a Facebook page and an Instagram account.

“The kids were going, Dad, you’ve got to be beyond the sign at the road.”

Against the pressure of rising input costs, Vanderklooster is holding the line on you-cut pricing at $75 per tree. There are cheaper options, but his customers are generally seeking both a tree and an experience, travelling to the country, often as a family unit. Some have been coming for 15 years, says Vanderklooster, and virtually without exception, all share something from his own happiest time of the year, making endless hours of work worthwhile.

“Everyone comes here, they’re happy, right?” he concluded. “The smiles, the kids, old customers, that’s when it’s fun.”

For more information, visit https://www.vanderkloosterchristmastrees.ca.