O Christmas tree, thy leaves are so unchanging

John Van’t Hof has been selling his Christmas trees in the parking lot next to the Woodside Tavern for 42 years; he started when he was just 23 years old with trees he grew on a piece of land he got from his parents. But his history with Christmas trees goes back even further, to the dairy farm he grew up on.

“We always did a little bit of Christmas trees, and I always loved doing it when I was younger,” he recalls. When John decided to start selling trees in the city, he found himself in the Woodside lot where South Dartmouth residents now see him every year. In the beginning, the tree lot was on the other side of the tavern, in front of the Sobeys. “We had more people travelling [by]” when the Sobeys was still open, John said, “but [its closure] hasn’t affected our business because people knew we were here.”

Indeed, the Van’t Hof tree lot has become a tradition for many in the neighbourhood. “I had people last week say they’ve been buying a tree [from me] for 40 years,” John remarked.

Growing Christmas trees is a year-round operation. A grower needs to have about 30,000 trees growing at one time in order to have 3,000 at the right size each year. Each tree is groomed into the right shape, and the whole lot needs to be frequently thinned out to ensure those trees have enough room to grow. “You gotta shear a lot more trees than you’re actually cutting,” John explained. “People don’t realize how much work’s involved.”

There are other challenges; for example, growers “only get paid in December,” and it is difficult to find workers if they have more trees than they can process on their own. The Van’t Hof operation is mostly run now by John and his wife, with a worker or two hired for the December sales. As retirees, the couple will keep working at the tree farm as long as they can and want to. But the tradition will live on regardless.

“My sons are into it too,” John explained. “I had more land than what I wanted to look after… getting older too. So my two sons are looking after pieces now.” One sells in Forest Hills and the other exports to the United States. For now, this South Dartmouth institution will keep selling a range of trees—from second grade to premium—right where they’ve been for over four decades.