By Julie Tomascik
Editor
Texas may be far from the North Pole, but at Old Time Christmas Tree Farm in Harris County, the holiday season rings merry and bright.
And at its roots, the Christmas tree farm is a family affair.
The Prause family grows holiday cheer each year on their farm by providing families an opportunity to choose-and-cut their own Christmas tree.
Some come from near and others from afar, but they leave with smiling faces, a tree and priceless memories. Because the Prauses are in the business of bringing people Christmas joy.
The Prause family
Damian and Leia Prause have been growing Christmas trees for nearly 30 years. Their children, Erin and Michael, now help with the family business.
The farm is located outside of Houston in Klein, and it was the best place to grow up, if you ask Erin and Michael.
“It was really nice being out here and being able to run free and play when we were little kids,” Erin said.
Michael helps Damian manage the farm. Together, they handle planting and trimming trees, irrigating, mowing and more. Erin helps with the business and administrative tasks—hiring and training employees, paperwork, social media, marketing and other tasks.
Christmas tree beginnings
As a young farmer, Damian raised cattle and grew hay and row crops on mostly leased land. But as more people moved to Harris County, the area changed.
The once wide-open spaces are now covered in concrete. Roads, homes, shopping centers and businesses cover the land where cattle used to graze. Urban sprawl swallowed up the area’s farm and ranch land, leaving Damian with few options but to adapt.
And he did.
“I could see that traditional farming and agriculture in our area was going away,” Damian said.
The idea of growing Christmas trees took root in 1991, and they planted their first trees in 1993. They began selling them in 1996.
Although he misses traditional farming, he continues to grow hay and raise some cattle.
But growing Christmas trees has its benefits.
“I’ve never had a Christmas tree get out on us. I’ve never had the sheriff call me in the middle of the night because the Christmas trees were on the road,” Damian said with a laugh.
How to grow Christmas trees
At Old Time Christmas Tree Farm, the Prauses grow Virginia Pine and Leyland Cypress.
“The pines are a little slower growing, but you can get an 8-foot tree, maybe, in four years,” Damian said. “The Cypress trees, maybe in three years, you can get an 8-foot tree.”
They use overhead irrigation, and can irrigate about seven acres a day, which means it takes roughly a week to irrigate the entire farm.
They buy seedlings to re-plant trees each year.
“They’ll grow for about a year before we begin to even do anything to them,” Damian said. “Then, we’ll put handles on them, and basically that is cutting the lower limbs off so there’s enough trunk to put in a tree stand.”
After they reach about 4 feet tall, they begin to shape them like a Christmas tree.
“It’s pretty simple. You just cut off everything that doesn’t look like a Christmas tree,” Damian said.
Michael helps with that process, which takes place twice a year. Each trimming takes about six weeks to complete all the trees on the farm.
“You’d be surprised by how many people think the trees grow just like this without any work,” Michael said. “We trim them to help shape them and add thickness to them. If you don’t trim them, they’ll just be a big, giant circle, and we don’t want it to look like that.”
But in Texas, the climate makes it tough to grow other varieties. That’s why Old Time Christmas Tree Farm brings in Black Hills Spruce trees and Frazier Firs from North Carolina and Michigan. They are sold as pre-cut trees.
“We can’t grow them here. We have a hot, tropical climate, and they’re in an environment where they need cooler weather, cooler nights, lower humidity,” Damian said. “We offer them as pre-cut, because if we don’t sell them one, somebody else will.”
Choose-and-cut trees
As a choose-and-cut farm, customers do exactly that—choose a tree and cut it down.
The process is simple. They meet a greeter who helps them get started. They pick up a saw and measuring stick, and then hop on a hay wagon for a ride out to the field. They’re dropped off in the trees where they’re left to wander, examine, smell and measure as many trees as they’d like.
“They can take their time choosing and cutting their perfect tree, and then the tractor driver picks them and their tree back up and brings them back to the front,” Erin said. “Then, we have processing stations to help get the trees processed as efficiently as possible.”
That includes taking a final measurement, and then the employees shake the trees.
“There’s a station where we shake the trees to remove any of the loose material in the trees—some loose leaves and needles and whatever may be in there,” Damian said.
Then, the tree goes to the baler to be wrapped for easier transport.
They have about 40,000 trees on the farm in various sizes from seedlings to the mature trees at 9, 10 and 11 feet tall.
Due to crowds and a growing demand, they now open the weekend before Thanksgiving.
“We try to sell about 20% a year,” Damian said. “So, we’ll retain 80%, re-plant and then the next year do that again.”
Family traditions
Old Time Christmas Tree Farm is part of many Texans’ holiday traditions.
“The best thing about it is that even in hard times with the economy, people still come, and they’ll get a tree,” Damian said. “That tree is the center of their holiday season. And really that’s probably the best thing about growing these trees is that we can be part of that—through good times and through bad times.”
How to care for your trees
“When you cut your tree and you get it home, the first thing you want to do is cut a little piece off the bottom. Even though you just got it cut and you’re taking it home, that tree will try to sap up and seal that up to try and not lose moisture,” Damian said. “So, get a fresh cut on there, get it in the stand and get some water in it.”
He encourages customers not to put the tree in a window that has full sun and to keep it away from heating and cooling sources, because they tend to dry out the tree quicker.
“Water is very, very important,” he said. “No sugar, no Sprite, no anything like that. Just pure water. These fresh trees, the ones you cut, drink a tremendous amount of water.”
Damian recommends to water them twice a day, and even more often than that in the beginning if you notice the tree drinking more water. It is important, he said, not to let the tree get dry.
The farm’s future
As Houston encroaches upon the farm more each year, the Prause family remains dedicated to staying in the business of Christmas cheer and agriculture.
“My brother and I would like to take over the farm from my parents one day,” Erin said. “It’s something that we both just really love to do, and we’d like to keep the tradition alive.”
Click here to watch a video interview with the Prause family.