Wisconsin Life

We're gonna go with this one. You like that guy? Yeah. - Ok.

chainsaw cutting

Uh oh, looka there. Could you grab the top and support it a little bit? You're looking for a tree? Yeah, between six and seven foot tall. Picking the right Christmas tree can be the biggest choice of the season. We specialize in more unique, big trees. Ken Ottman tries to make it easy. And it won't be hard.

laughs

We try to make it so people can walk up and down the aisles and find a tree. For those whose eyes are bigger than their ceiling, he offers a measuring stick. If they got an eight foot ceiling, they can find a tree that's not 10 feet. You're good? - Yeah. - Ok. All right. Well, that's good. Yeah, it's a very nice tree. You learn a lot of tricks of the trade when your family has been in the Christmas tree business for more than 70 years. My dad started the business in 1946 and we've been selling trees continuously in the Milwaukee area. Ken's customers have made getting one of his trees part of their Christmas tradition. We have grandchildren of my father's original customers that are coming and bringing their little kids. So after 70 years, we've got generational loyalty. And that's just real rewarding. This is the one. - This is a good one? - All right. While they head home to hang lights, Ken heads back to the trailer to help his daughter make more wreaths. But don't feel sorry for him. This is the fun part of the year. The growing of trees is nothing but hard work. The real work in Christmas tree farming comes in July. People don't have any idea. We're going to start in this section right here, every other row. That's when Ken, his brother Steve, his sister Leslie and their families all gather in Door County to shear the trees. Shearing is what makes a proper Christmas tree. This'll make an eight to nine foot tall tree this year. Ken needs to cut the leader and all the shaggy new growth or else the tree would grow too fast and leave space between the branches. That's not what the consumer wants these days. They want a tighter, more full tree. Each species of pine tree has a narrow window to be sheared. She's done. That's it. So Ken's family is sweating in the sun, swinging sharp knives and wearing a catcher's leg guard, just in case. That's all marks from missing.

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This land has been in Ken's family since the late 1800s. My great grandfather initially bought the land here. It wasn't always trees. His grandparents grew cherries here. Ken's mother grew up in Door County, but married a painter named Herbert from Milwaukee. Before Christmas, nobody wanted their house painted because the odor was so bad that my dad was basically without work in December. So Herbert started selling Christmas trees, and eventually bought the Door County farm. They began planting trees here in hopes that they would be able to supply trees for his retail sales. At one point Ken says there were 15,000 trees here. And Herbert sheared them all by hand on his own. My dad was the one who had the fire for growing Christmas trees. My mom was a... a supportive participant.

laughs

Ken and his siblings grew up in the Christmas tree business. From the day I could use a jackknife and open up a Christmas tree, I worked in the Christmas tree business. It led to his decision to become a forester and buy two more tree farms. His brother also owns two farms, and his sister runs the Door County family farm as a "choose and cut." It is fun. It's the same people come year after year after year. You get new people every year but you have your regulars. They worked hard at it. This is their legacy. That's why we keep it going. I don't know if it's a life's passion or a curse,

chuckes

but it's what we do. No matter how hot it gets in July, the chill of December is just a few months away. They'll have to drag me out of a Christmas tree lot by my heels. And Ken can't imagine not being a part of his customers' merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. I love this. I love this.