Picking the 'perfect' Christmas tree can be as personal as what goes on it
The Coats family wandered from row to row at A & A Christmas Tree Farm in Okatie on Sunday looking for the perfect tree.
"What about this one?" called Steve Coats to the rest of his family as his wife, Louise Coats, Louise's mother, Ann Clayton, and the Coats' three children, Cannon, 15, London, 12, and Emmy, 9, brought up the rear.
Like a scene out of a Norman Rockwell painting, the Hilton Head family gathered around the fluffy round tree as if to be sizing it up. It was not too big and yet not too small either.
In fact, it seemed -- just right.
"It usually comes down to 'yes' or 'no' and then finding the one you like the most," Coats said as the six stood around appraising their selection.
For many families, like the Coats out shopping on Sunday, picking that "perfect" tree is as personal and subjective as what goes on the tree itself.
Fortunately for those who show up at A & A, owners Dianne and Jerry Youngblood offer several varieties in all sizes and price ranges as well.
"People call up and say, 'How much are your trees?'" said the no-nonsense Jerry Youngblood as a steady flow of trucks and SUVs pulled into the farm's grassy parking lot on Sunday. "I say, 'How big of a tree are you wanting?'"
The Youngbloods have four-footers starting around $25 and 12-footers topping out around $148.
They offer already-cut Fraser Firs brought in from West Jefferson, N.C., as well as varieties you can cut yourself that were grown there on the five-acre farm.
The most popular, he said, are the Fraser Firs, though they sell a good many of the locally grown as well.
"It's about half and half," he said.
The day after Thanksgiving, the farm sold more than 160 trees, he said, and it was looking like they might sell that many, if not more than 100, again on Sunday.
"We are really going crazy right now," he said.
Over at Poppell's Seasonal Sales on the corner of U.S. 278 and S.C. 46 in Bluffton, business was brisk on the small lot as well.
"Yesterday was steady all day long," said Poppell's employee Kevin Strock on Sunday morning as he was getting ready for the after-church crowd. "We must have sold about 30 trees."
Poppell's also offers the popular Fraser Firs from North Carolina.
Samantha Szwak, of Bluffton, who bought one of Poppell's firs, said it only took about 10 minutes to pick her tree.
"I walked around and looked at everything first," she said.
Fullness was just one of the things she looked for in a tree, she said, as she waited for the fir to be loaded onto the top of her SUV.
"And a good smell," she said. "I love that smell."
Follow reporter Mindy Lucas on Twitter at twitter.com/MindyatIPBG.
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This story was originally published November 29, 2015 at 6:02 PM with the headline "Picking the 'perfect' Christmas tree can be as personal as what goes on it."