Types & History

Learn about the various tree types and find out which tree is best for you!

Murray Cypress

  • Color: Ranges from medium green to dark green; usually
    darker than Leyland Cypress
  • Branch stiffness/sturdiness: Tend to be medium sturdy.
  • Openness for decorations: Varies.
  • Smell: Very little scent
  • Longevity: Very long-lasting (from before Thanksgiving); will drop few needles; little sap.
  • Other: Similar in appearance to Leyland Cypress, but has stiffer limbs. This is currently the most common tree on Georgia Christmas tree farms.

Leyland Cypress

  •  Color: Ranges from medium green to dark green
  • Branch stiffness/sturdiness: Tend to be less sturdy; but it varies
  • Openness for decorations: Varies from open to very dense
  • Smell: Very little scent
  • Longevity: Very long-lasting (from before Thanksgiving); will drop few needles; little sap.
  • Other: Similar in appearance to Murray Cypress. Foliage is a bit softer than the Murray Cypress.

Carolina Sapphire

  •  Color: Ranges from light green to medium green
  • Branch stiffness/sturdiness: Tend to be less sturdy; but varies
  • Openness for decorations: Usually very dense
  • Smell: Moderate scent (sometimes described as minty citrus)
  • Longevity: Medium-lasting (from early December)

Blue Ice & Silver Smoke

  •  Color: Ranges from light blue to gray to light green to silverish
  • Branch stiffness/sturdiness: Tend to be less sturdy
  • Openness for decorations: Usually somewhat open
  • Smell: Moderate scent (sometimes described as spicy, with Silver Smoke being the slightly more spicy than Blue Ice)
  • Longevity: Medium-lasting (from early December)

Naylor Blue

  •  Color: light green
  • Branch stiffness/sturdiness: Tend to be fairly light
  • Openness for decorations: dense, with a relaxed appearance
  • Smell: Very little scent
  • Longevity: Medium-lasting (from early December)

Eastern Red Cedar

  •  Color: Usually medium green
  • Branch stiffness/sturdiness: Tend to be fairly light; but varies
  • Openness for decorations: Usually somewhat open
  • Smell: Fairly strong scent (smells just like cedar, of course)
  • Longevity: short-lasting (2-3 weels max)

Virginia Pine

  •  Color: naturally medium green, but most growers color these a deeper green to alleviate the tree’s natural
    tendency to become yellowish in winter
  • Branch stiffness/sturdiness: Sturdy
  • Openness for decorations: Usually somewhat open
  • Smell: Fairly strong pine scent
  • Longevity: Long-lasting (from Thanksgiving)
  • Other: Commonly available at both retail lots and choose-and-cut farms.

Eastern White Pine 

  •  Color: light green
  • Branch stiffness/sturdiness: Tend to be less sturdy
  • Openness for decorations: Usually somewhat dense
  • Smell: Very light pine scent
  • Longevity: Very long-lasting

Fraser Fir

  •  Color: usually medium to dark green
  • Branch stiffness/sturdiness: Very sturdy
  • Openness for decorations: Nicely open
  • Smell: Strong pleasant scent that lasts
  • Longevity: Very long-lasting
  • Other: This tree cannot be grown in most of Georgia. Many Christmas tree farms have these as pre-cut trees. This is the most common Christmas tree on tree lots and big box stores in the South. The big advantage of buying these trees from a Georgia Christmas tree farm is that the trees are typically stood in water when they arrive. That way they are fresh when you select them. 

Learn about the history of Christmas trees

  • 1510 – The first written record of a decorated Christmas tree comes from Riga, Latvia. Men of the local merchants’ guild decorated a tree with artificial roses, danced around it in the marketplace and then set fire to it. The rose was used for many year and is considered to be a symbol for the Virgin Mary.
  • 1530 – There is record from Alsace, France (then Germany territory) that trees were sold in the marketplace and brought home and set up undecorated. Laws limited the size to “8 shoe lengths” (slightly over 4 feet).
  • 1600s – By the 17th century, it was common in Germany to decorate Christmas trees with apples. This practice was a holdover from the 14th and 15th centuries when evergreen boughs hung with apples were the only prop used in the “miracle plays” that were performed at the churches on December 24. December 24 was Adam & Eve’s Day in the early Christian calendar, and the plays were used as ways of teaching the Bible to a largely illiterate population.
  • 1700s – In parts of Austria and Germany, evergreen tips were brought into the home and hung top down from the ceiling. They were often decorated with apples, gilded nuts and red paper strips. Edible ornaments became so popular on Christmas trees that they were often called “sugartress.” The first accounts of using lighted candles as decorations on Christmas trees come from France in the 18th century.
  • 1800s – The Christmas tree was introduced in the United States by German settlers. It rapidly grew from tabletop size to floor-to-ceiling.
  • 1851 – Christmas trees began to be sold commercially in the United States. They were taken at random from the forests.
  • 1853 – Franklin Pierce is credited with bringing the first Christmas tree to the White House.
  • Late 1800s – The first glass ornaments were introduced into the United States, again from Germany. The first ones were mostly balls, but later chains of balls, toys and figures became more common.
  • Around 1883 – Sears, Roebuck & Company began offering the first artificial Christmas trees – 33 limbs for $.50 and 55 limbs for $1.00.
  • 1900s – Due to overharvesting, the natural supply of evergreens began to be decimated. Conservationists became alarmed, and many magazines began to encourage people to substitute an artificial “snow” covered tree, consisting of a branch of a deciduous tree wrapped in cotton.
  • 1901 – The first Christmas tree farm was started in 1901 when W.V. McGalliard planted 25,000 Norway spruce on his farm in New Jersey. Also in 1901, Theodore Roosevelt tried to stop the practice of having Christmas trees out of concern about the destruction of forests. His two sons didn’t agree and enlisted the help of conservationist Gifford Pinchot to persuade the president that, done properly, the practice was not harmful to the forests.
  • 1930s – President Franklin D. Roosevelt started a Christmas tree farm on his estate in Hyde Park, New York.
  • 1966 – The National Christmas tree Association began its time-honored tradition of having the Grand Champion grower present a Christmas tree to the First Lady for display in the Blue Room of the White House. That year, Howard Pierce of Black River Falls, Wisconsin, presented a tree to President Lyndon Johnson and First Lady Lady Bird Johnson.
  • Today – Approximately 25-30 million Real Christmas trees are sold each year in the United States. Almost all of these come from Christmas tree plantations.

SOURCE: National Christmas Tree Association

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GACTA

US Mail Office Address: 
Georgia Christmas Tree Association
120 Cordele Rd.
Hawkinsville, GA 31036
Phone: 478-919-TREE (8733)