This post may contain affiliate links, which means I receive a commission if you choose to purchase through links I provide (at no extra cost to you). Shopping through these links is one small way of supporting this blog, and for that - I thank you! For more information, see my disclosures here.

Does anyone else feel like the holiday season tends to show up on your plate with an unhealthy side of stress? I don’t think I have to list out all of the ways in which the holidays can easily be filled with unexpected stress. My goodness, it’s 2020 and this entire year has been earmarked by stress and unmet expectations and loads of uncertainty. So when it comes to the holidays this year, now more than ever, I am all about finding ways to eliminate stress and still create reasonable family traditions and memories.

The History of Our Christmas Tree Tradition

One of my absolute favorite holiday traditions that my husband and I started together once we got married was to pick out and cut down our own Christmas tree. There’s something so sweet and special about looking for “the perfect tree.” The first year that we were married, we went the weekend following Thanksgiving and bundled up in the bitter cold and wandered around an adorable little tree farm in search of our first Christmas tree.

I grew up with real Christmas trees and while they are high maintenance (hello, watering cans and needles on the floor!), there is just something so special and nostalgic about hunting for a tree, bringing it home, and decorating it right away - the fresh scent of pine and the thrill of trying to place every ornament on the tree just right to cover up any imperfections from its natural design. For my husband, who grew up in South Africa, real Christmas trees were not a part of his holiday traditions, but he was more than supportive and understanding that it was important to me.

OUR FIRST CHRISTMAS TREE FROM 2016

Allowing Some Flexibility in Our Traditions

One of the things that I noticed the first year that we went looking for a tree, was how many of the trees were already tagged and sold, even though we showed up the first weekend that the tree farm was open!

So several years into our marriage, on a random warm day in early November, I did some research to see if we could hunt for a Christmas tree early, and then we visited our favorite tree farm again and searched early for a tree that we wanted to take home after Thanksgiving. Let me tell you - it was SO nice to walk around the tree farm on a warm day and not worry about the aggravation of bitterly cold weather!

Once Thanksgiving rolled around, it ended up being a dreary and extra cold day. So we called the tree farm once they were open after Thanksgiving and had them cut down the tree for us. They had it ready and waiting so that when we stopped by, all we had to do was put it on top of our car and pay for it!

BONUS TIP: Along with making sure we have some rope and cargo ratchet straps, our car seat cover that we use for our dog worked incredibly well to keep the tree from scratching the paint on top of our car! One of the best features of using this car seat cover instead of an old blanket is that the backing is already designed with some rubber texture, which keeps the tree from sliding around on top of the car.

OUR CHRISTMAS TREE HUNT FROM 2018

Adapting to the Needs of a Newborn Baby

The only time that we deviated from our tradition was last year - I was pregnant with our first baby, who was due at the beginning of November. So I definitely did not want to be out walking around to look for a Christmas tree when I was super pregnant, and by the time Thanksgiving rolled around, I didn’t want to spend all of the time that it would take to be out of the house with a newborn - first time mom who was still uncomfortable in her new (and recovering) body, unsure of feeding schedules and making sure that the baby would get proper sleep.

So instead of traveling out to our usual tree farm, we stopped in for a shorter visit at the nursery just down the road from our house - Frey’s Greenhouse. They had a great selection of pre-cut trees for reasonable prices, which is just what we needed. They even had a sweet little campfire set up with marshmallows for roasting. The perfect outing for us with a newborn baby along for picking out his first ever Christmas tree!

OUR CHRISTMAS TREE PICK WITH A NEWBORN IN 2019

New Traditions that Offer Less Stress

With everything that is going on this year (thanks, coronavirus), it just seemed like the right decision to once again take advantage of a warm fall day and pick out our Christmas Tree for the holidays! I once again looked up our favorite Christmas Tree Farm and double-checked that it wasn’t going to be too early to visit the farm to search for our tree.

My husband and I have been visiting Hunt’s Christmas Tree Farm in Millersville, PA since we were married (with the exception of last year). Their website says that Christmas Tree Tagging starts October 1st and you can stop by any day of the week during daylight hours. It’s amazing to me that there aren’t more tree farms that allow tagging early - I added a short list of local tree farms in Lancaster County, PA in the tips below.

All of the instructions for tagging your tree are listed inside this adorable little wooden shed (the tagging booth) and they have a map that you can take with you to navigate their different fields of trees. Once we found the tree that we wanted this year, we added our SOLD tag to the tree with our names and contact info on it and then took off the bottom part of the price tag to add our contact info and drop it off again in the tagging booth.

Overall, we probably spent about an hour and a half at the tree farm enjoying the gorgeous warm fall day while looking for our perfect tree for this year. And it certainly did not feel like it was too long - although, the baby was ready for his nap.

BONUS TIP: Once we returned to the tag booth to drop off our contact info with our tree information, I always make sure to take a photo of our tag with the tree number and price, as well as make note of which field we found it in! My husband and I like to use a shared Trello board to place cards with important information or anything that we need to be able to reference at some point in the future. I’ll just make a new card that says “Christmas Tree 2020” and attach any photos that I took, along with the location and contact info of the tree farm! Super simple and easy to reference again later if we need to have our tree pre-cut and ready for us - or to remember where to find our tree if we go back to cut it down ourselves. Check out Trello for free here!

OUR CHRISTMAS TREE FOR 2020

OUR CHRISTMAS TREE FOR 2021

If you love searching for a Christmas tree and cutting it down yourself, but find the hunt to be stressful or overwhelming with the unpredictable weather or busy activities of the holidays, then consider a few of my tips below for reducing stress when searching for a Christmas Tree!

TIPS FOR FINDING A CHRISTMAS TREE WITH LESS STRESS

1. Go Early!

Research your local Christmas tree farms and find out if they allow early tree tagging. If they do, make sure you know when the tree tagging season starts.

Christmas Tree Farms in Lancaster County PA that allow EARLY TAGGING:
(Updated for 2021)

Hunt’s Christmas Tree Farm - Millersville, PA
http://huntschristmastrees.com/
Early tagging begins October 2nd, 2021

Bowser’s Christmas Tree Farm - Lititz, PA
http://bowserschristmastreefarm.com/index.html
Early tagging available as of October 20th, 2021

Miller’s Christmas Tree Farm - Elizabethtown, PA
https://www.millerschristmastreefarm.com/
Early tagging begins October 30th, 2021

Manorfield Farm - Columbia, PA
https://www.facebook.com/TheManorfieldFarm/
Early tagging begins October 1st, 2021

Christmas Tree Farms in Lancaster County PA that are CUT YOUR OWN:
(Updated for 2021)

Frog Hollow Evergreens - Manheim, PA
https://froghollowevergreens.com/
Their 2021 Season starts November 20th - they do not have early tagging, but they do allow you to cut your own tree!

Heritage Tree Farm - Rothsville, PA
http://www.heritagetreefarm.net/
Their 2021 Season starts November 26th - they do not have early tagging, but you can cut your own.

Country Barn - Lancaster, PA
https://countrybarnmarket.com/cut-your-own-christmas-tree
Their 2021 Season starts November 26th - no early tagging, but you can cut your own.

2. Visit on a Warm Day

Once you know when the tree farms allow early tagging, you know your window of opportunity so that you can take advantage of a warm (or at least non-rainy) day to go pick out a tree! Then you can be spontaneous and pop in any day that is warm enough before Thanksgiving (or put it on your calendar and go over no matter what the weather happens to be). BONUS: When you go this early to tag a tree, you avoid crowds, which is even more important this year!

3. Make Some Traditions

After we picked out and tagged our tree, we turned on the Peanuts Christmas album for our drive home and also enjoyed some tea and cookies that evening. Consider making the early tree tagging a part of your family traditions - perhaps that means some early Christmas music or some hot apple cider and cookies once you get home.

4. Be Prepared to Adapt

It happens - you make plans and then all of a sudden something comes up and you’ve got to be ready for Plan B (or Plan C). One of the best things about planning to tag your Christmas tree early in the season is that there is plenty of room to adapt to any needed changes! Maybe your Plan A is to be able to return to the tree farm and cut down your tree with everyone in the family in a good mood, but then it ends up being a cold and dreary day or weekend and no one wants to be out of the house. Many tree farms will offer to cut your tree and have it all wrapped and ready for you once you arrive if you call them and ask.