Walking up the rows of Christmas trees at Budd’s Tree Farm on Friday, John and Sue Tasker of Geneva and their two children were on a quest to find the perfect Christmas tree.

“I’ve found it, I’ve found it!” 8-year-old Jacob Tasker shouted out.

The family, dressed in winter coats, rushed over to Jacob’s tree.

“That’s a nice one,” Sue said to her son.

Then just a few minutes later, 6-year-old Amy Tasker announced to the family that she had found the prize-winning tree.

Shortly after, the children’s father called everyone over to check out his find.

This is what took place for probably an hour, until the Taskers decided to go with a balsam fir picked out by Jacob.

“It’s tradition,” Sue said of coming to the tree farm. “And it’s the whole experience, too. Coming out here and finding the perfect tree, and then eating cookies and cider. It was something I did as a child with my family, and I want my kids to experience the same.”
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The day after Thanksgiving has become a popular time for people to get their Christmas trees, whether at a tree farm like Budd’s or at another store with pre-cut trees.

Paul Budd, owner of Budd’s Tree Farm, said he expected to sell 70 percent of his trees for the season during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. He called the day after Thanksgiving his busiest day of the whole season.

Budd said most of his customers are repeat customers — as mailers are sent out to people who’ve come before. He noted he plans to sell about 1,000 trees this season.

He’s been in the business for 32 years and peaked when he sold 2,200 trees in one year.

He has gradually started having fewer and fewer trees. This year he probably has about 14,000 trees in his whole farm — of seven different varieties.

“We’re having people that used to come out when they were a kid and now they’re coming with their families,” Budd said.

For people who don’t have the time to cut down their own tree, there are three other places locally that offer live trees.

Steve Tubbs of Ben’s Floral & Frame Design said his business moves through more than half of its trees the first weekend after Thanksgiving. The business received trees from its supplier last Tuesday.

“It’s nice to be doing this in the sunshine,” Tubbs said, commenting about the warmer-than-usual weather on Friday.

He noted that his business not only sells trees, but it also offers to deliver trees to people who request it. Some people also ask for help cutting off the bottom of the tree and getting it into the tree stand.

“You almost become part of their traditions,” he said. “It’s fun.”

His business offers Fraser and balsam firs.

Jay Nelson, owner of Nelson’s Market Place, said his store was seeing an increase in tree sales on Friday.

This is the first year the store is actually selling them in-store; before they had been sold in the lot, he said. They’re starting out with 100 spruce and fir trees.

An employee at Hy-Vee said his store sees a major increase in tree sales the first weekend in December. Hy-Vee typically sell 10 percent of the store’s trees the weekend after Thanksgiving and then increases after that.

The business has more than 300 white pine, scotch pine, Fraser fir and balsam fir trees.