Still looking for a Christmas tree? Why not try one of your neighborhood vendors?
Park Slope
This bearded woodsman may seem like a fish out of water, but he is more like a tree transplanted in the urban forest of Brooklyn. Adam Parke lives most of the year in tiny Barton, Vt., but, for the past 23 years, he has spent three weeks of every winter sitting on Brooklyn sidewalks, selling Christmas trees with natural bona fides for the green consumer.
The arboreal entrepreneur grows his Fraser firs, balsam firs, white pines, and balsam-Fraser hybrids without pesticides or chemical spray, cuts them in late November, and ships them to an outdoor stand at the All Saints Church in Park Slope in time for the beginning of December.
He stays with a friend in Columbia Heights for selling season, which runs from Thanksgiving to Christmas. His two children are both grown up, so it is not as much of a burden to come down every year, he says. His son is even helping him out this time around.
“It’s really a family operation,” Parke said.
He got his start in the business in 1990 and started growing his own trees three years later. Twenty years on, the evergreen business has grown into a small, piney empire.
Parke’s Christmas tree stands, which also offer wreaths, garlands, and maple syrup, all from Vermont, are also planted in Carroll Gardens, Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn Heights, and Dumbo. He recommends the balsam-Fraser hybrids for their soft foliage and “beautiful scent.”
• It’ll cost you $10 per foot up to seven feet.
• He offers Fraser fir, balsam fir, white pine, balsam-Fraser hybrids.
Fresh Vermont Holiday Trees at All Saints Church (286-88 Seventh Ave. at Seventh Street in Park Slope).
All a-glow: Ridgites lit up a tree in the Shore Road Park Gazebo for the 11th year in a row on Dec. 4.
Photo by Michael Beitchman
Bay Ridge
Not all Christmas tree vendors travel from distant climes. Some are selling practically in their own backyard — and importing their decorative wood from afar.
Such is the case with the Christmas tree stand at the corner of 67th Street and Fourth Avenue in Bay Ridge, where the manager is Carroll Gardens native Richard Flagg. A general contractor for most of the year, Flagg found himself out of work in December 2009, and still needing to pay for two kids’ college tuition. So he approached the stand’s owner — whose conifer cartel includes six depots in Manhattan — about a job.
“I’m off work for a month, so I thought, why not make money?” Flagg said. “It’s a lot more relaxing that doing construction.”
And Flagg — a grandson of Dr. Paluel Flagg, founder of the Catholic Medical Mission Board, an international healthcare charity — has been dealing in evergreens annually ever since. The corner stand deals in two types of timber:
• Balsam firs, originating in Quebec, with four-foot trees starting at $45 and eight-footers beginning at $85.
• Fraser firs, coming out of North Carolina, with two-foot trees starting as low as $20, and 10-foot trees going for $165.
Peruse Flagg’s firs at his sidewalk stand (67th Street at Fourth Avenue in Bay Ridge).
Williamsburg
Dominick has been selling Christmas trees for 20 years as a part of the Union Trees company. The outfit hawks firs in Williamsburg’s Macri Triangle, a stone’s throw from Union Hall and the other rowdy bars near the Lorimer stop. The seller, who asked that his last name not be used, chose the location based on its proximity to the Mount Carmel church, which has a partnership with the operation, but Dominick finds the people in Williamsburg plenty amusing, too.
“It’s just humorous to see how couples — one person will want one thing and one person will want another,” he said. “Usually the guy gives up fast — at least the smart ones.”
Work duties are split among Dominick’s family and friends, who travel to North Carolina and occasionally Canada to check out trees a few times a year. Toward the beginning of winter, farmers in those areas ship trees to Brooklyn, and the Macri Triangle business begins — with the okay of the Parks Department in the form of a $926 permit. Dominick generally only sells Fraser fir trees, his favorite.
“It holds up well, so if you get it right after Thanksgiving or right before, through the New Year you won’t have a problem with it,” he said.
• The trees are all Fraser firs.
• The average tree is about 5 to 8 feet and costs about $100.
Union Trees at Macri Triangle (Union Avenue at Metropolitan Avenue in Williamsburg).
Sheepshead Bay
Arthur Khotinskiy spends most of the year selling flowers out of the parking lot attached to the Coney Island Avenue Carvel in Sheepshead Bay. But during the holiday season, he deals in premium-grade Fraser firs. If you do not mind spending a little extra to get a tree that will not start shedding needles after a week, Khotinskiy’s trees are the ones for you, he says.
Khotinskiy stocks only Fraser firs because they’re sought out by his Russian clients, who want their trees to last until the Old Russian New Year on Jan. 13, he said.
The Sheepshead Bay resident started selling flowers out of the Coney Island Avenue Carvel parking lot about 10 years ago when he was still in high school, after befriending the Aceto family, which owns the ice cream shop.
Khotinskiy prides himself in running a full-service operation. He is happy to strap a tree on top of your car for you and, if you cannot make it to his tree stand, he delivers.
• Khotinskiy’s trees are all Fraser firs from North Carolina and start at $75 for a five- or six-footer.
• Every extra foot beyond six will cost you an additional $10.
Khotinskiy’s trees at the Carvel parking lot (2744 Coney Island Ave. between Dunne Court and Avenue Y in Sheepshead Bay).
