Hansen Tree Farm is a place families come year after year, according to co-owner Dave Hansen.
“Last weekend, I was doing a hayride, and the wagon filled up: grandparents, and then the parents, and then these little kids,” said Hansen, whose family started the Christmas tree farm outside Ramsey in 1952.
The 40-acre site sells seven varieties of live trees, some of which families can cut themselves and take home for the holiday season. Like so many other prices, Hansen said he’s had to raise the prices on his trees.
“The insurance on my buildings, over the last three years, because of construction costs—it’s doubled,” he said.
Hansen also notes that the pandemic bump that so many tree farms saw during the early stages of the pandemic—when families wanted to find outdoor activities they could do safely—is largely gone.
“Business is tapering off a little from the pandemic bump, quite possibly because other venues are open,” said Hansen. He also said tree farms have regularly begun opening the week before Thanksgiving because of demand, and in the case of the last two years, his farm opened two weeks before Thanksgiving.
“The last two years, we—all of us—have sold a lot of trees,” he said. “Last year, most of us, had to close a week earlier. It’s not that there weren’t enough—(the trees) weren’t big enough.”
Hansen Tree Farm is open just one more weekend this holiday season, before Hansen said they’ll take a few months off. He employs 30 people during this busiest months. He wants to create an entire experience for his customers, many of whom are still looking for more than just a tree to strap to the roof of their SUV.
“A tree is part of it,” he said. “The whole experience, the whole event if you will, is a bigger part.”