Fresh-cut trees arrive at Bluebird
Bluebird Christmas Tree Farm owner Leo Cllins watches as Madeleine Rawdon, center, and Andry Bunch cut sections of green garland on Saturday, Nov. 15, for sale at the tree farm this holiday season. (photo:G. Chambers Williams III )
The Bluebird Christmas Tree Farm at 985 Brushy Valley Road will open Thursday (Nov. 20), and owner Leo Collins said last Saturday that there will be plenty of trees available.
“We will have our own trees, although not as many as we would like to have, plus we will have our usual stock of pre-cut trees from the western North Carolina and East Tennessee mountains,” he said.
“Prices are lower this year as well,” he said. “The trees will be at least $5 less than last year’s, with the larger trees down even more than that,” he said as crew members worked Saturday getting the farm ready for customers.
Days and hours will be from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday through Sunday until Dec. 21, except for Thanksgiving Day (Nov. 27), when the farm will be closed. It will be open on Black Friday, the next day, Collins said.
While the farm offers some live trees that customers can pick from its fields, the bulk of the trees sold will be the pre-cut varieties the farm has purchased from outside vendors.
Collins said the live and pre-cut trees range from about six-and-a-half to 12 feet tall.
About 20 staff members will be on hand this weekend as sales begin, Collins said.
Last Saturday, two crew members were cutting 80-foot rolls of green tree garland into lengths of about 10-12 feet for sale at the farm.
“The prices of our trees are clearly marked, either with color-coded ribbons or individual price tags,” Collins posted on Facebook. “The trees growing on our farm are mostly Leyland cypress and Norway spruce from 6-9.5-feet tall. We will sell no more than 400 of these this year in order to have a decent supply for 2026.”
Pre-cut Fraser and Douglas firs are cut once a week and brought to the farm.
Most of these will fit standard 8-foot ceilings, about 500 of them will be high enough to require ceilings 9-13-feet tall, he said.
“Trees for a standard 8-foot-tall ceiling (7.5 feet tall) are mostly $65 or $75,” Collins said.
“We will be bringing in Fraser firs, Douglas firs, and Balsam firs., and the Fraser firs are our most-popular variety,” Collins said. “It’s just too warm to grow the firs here.”
The tree farm also operates a seasonal gift shop, which is stocked with T-shirts, caps, tree stands, local jams, honey, ornaments, and garland, along with bacon and whole smoked country hams from Benton’s Smoky Mountain Ham in Madisonville.
This year, Collins will continue to donate part of his proceeds from tree sales to charity – this time to the East Tennessee Children’s Hospital.
“We made donations to (Hurricane) Helene relief last year, and we wanted to donate to another cause again this year,” he said. “We are giving $5,000 to the hospital.”
For the past 40 years, Collins has run the tree farm to serve as a launch pad for many families’ holiday celebrations.