The official White House Christmas Tree this year was selected from a farm in Western North Carolina—the area that produces a fourth of the country’s Christmas Trees. It's also the area that suffered major damage from Hurricane Helene.
Grayson County, in Southwest Virginia, is another one of the country’s top Christmas tree producers. That area was also hard hit by flooding.
“I think everyone is just much more aware of how blessed we are,” said Melissa Goodman, who works with her husband at Mount Rogers Christmas Tree Farm in Whitetop. She said she is grateful that nobody in her county lost their life in the flood, but she is feeling sad for the families who did lose loved ones.
Their farm didn’t suffer too much damage in the flood, but she knows others that did, especially over the state line in North Carolina.
“And everyone’s just trying to pull together and get through. And hoping ‘25’s the better year. It is humbling. I will put it that way,” Goodman said.
Her husband has been bringing trees from their farm to one grower in North Carolina, where roads are still washed out.
“He just can’t get to his fields to harvest his trees, so we’re actually gonna sell him some of ours,” Goodman said. “Big farming community—it’s tight knit that way.
She and her husband sell most of their trees outside a Trader Joe’s, in Fairfax County. A majority of the Christmas Trees grown in Grayson County are sold at big box stores throughout Virginia.
“About 1.2 million trees are marketed out of Grayson County in a year. Grayson ranks 8th nationally,” said Kevin Spurlen, Grayson County’s extension agent.
He said mudslides and debris during Helene took out some Christmas trees in Southwest Virginia, but the losses are small compared with the overall agricultural damage.
Other growers across the Commonwealth say they were impacted by drought conditions this year and lost some saplings.
Spurlen said buying trees grown in Virginia can help support farmers, many of whom grow several different crops each year. Christmas Tree sales may be the only thing keeping them afloat in the months ahead.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
