Johnson: What happens to that $950 tree still on the lot?

2012-12-21 14:43:40

Tom Johnson is out back, dismantling the flocking and fire retardant tent. Two employees are on the far right of the property, scrubbing the top and sides of a different tent they have already taken to the ground. There seems a sadness to it all.

I was in search of Christmas, even if just a shred of it. It puts me in a particular mood, one that makes me smile. Maybe you know of this ritual, too.

Tom Johnson and his brother, Eric, were everything except sad. Tell me a Christmas story, I asked them. They both smiled.

They have been in the Christmas tree business for close to 35 years. It started out as a bit of a lark. Their brother was managing a lot for a guy who had 17 of them. He hired them when they were just kids. It stuck with them.

They have been selling trees together since 1989, and have occupied this lot at Jeffrey Road and Irvine Center Drive in Irvine for 14 years.

They love their job. Tom Johnson figures they have moved better than a thousand trees this year.

The brothers walk me around what is left of their lot. Ninety-one trees, Tom Johnson says, when I ask how many are left. He hasn't counted them. He just knows.

They figure they will sell the last one sometime this afternoon. When you've been in the Christmas tree business as long as they have, Eric says, you just know.

"I have sold one in the past as late as 10 p.m. on Christmas Eve," Eric says. It will not happen this year. This, the brothers say, has been a good selling year.

People come from all over Southern California to buy the brothers' trees. People know them. They start coming in early September when the brothers open their pumpkin patch here. When the pumpkins are all gone, the brothers begin setting up for the Christmas trees.

On Thanksgiving Day, they clear out one of tents, buy a few turkeys, a couple of hams, prepare all the fixings and share a meal with their 30 employees and the families who come early to pick up those first Christmas trees.

In the days that follow, Tom, 53, will work the flocking tent, coloring trees in whatever color you might possibly want. He is one of the last of the tree flockers, he says, It is a dying art. It also accounts for about 10 percent of his business, which means he flocks a heck of a lot of trees.

They are mostly what he calls Eastern trees. Frasier firs and blue spruces that are common on the East Coast he flocks for people who have moved to Orange County from there. They miss the snow, Tom Johnson explains. They want a little of it at Christmastime, he says, even if it is fake.

Eric, 55, a construction worker the rest of the year, handles the front of the lot, putting new cuts on the trunk, getting the trees wrapped and tied to the tops of cars.

They walk me through the remaining trees, and I mostly notice the price tags. I stop and nearly fall over when I pass a noble fir, 19 feet tall, priced at a whopping $950.99.

"It's not just a tree," Tom Johnson explains unapologetically but amicably. "It's come from the Pacific Northwest. Someone had to take it down. Eight guys had to put it on a big truck. It took up a lot of room on that big truck. And that doesn't even account for what we have to do once we get it."

It was Dec. 20 when we spoke. Will someone actually purchase this tree? I ask them. They looked at me as if to yell, "Well, of course!"

It led to a different question: Who waits so long to buy a tree?

"Well, most people who would buy a thousand dollar tree will want to have it in their home and enjoy it for a long time," Tom Johnson said.

"As for the others, well, you would be surprised. Maybe the guy coming in tonight was on a long business trip. Maybe family they weren't expecting are showing up and they need a tree. Could be a thousand reasons, but people will show."

It is too early in the morning for anyone to show up looking for a tree. I let the brothers get back to work.

When a photographer shows up Friday to take pictures, he asks about the $950 tree. That 19-foot tree was cut shorter and sold, he was told. Now the most expensive tree on the lot: $480.

It is nice to know, though, that any trees they don't sell, Eric will donate to a charity that provides trees for needy families.

Though that would not be particularly good for their business, I am hoping they have a few leftovers.

Merry Christmas.

Contact the writer: or 714-796-2265

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