Looking to get a real Christmas tree this year. Looking for places that offer the full experience. Any recommendations in Tolland or Hartford County, and how much to tree's cost? I like to support the cause so any rod and gun clubs offer anything? Growing up I worked the Wallingford Rod and Gun Club Christmas Tree sale.

We go in south windsor, Dzen's IIRC, you spend about an  hour walking through a field of xmas trees trying to make your wife happy with one, only to get it home and find out she was wrong about the 9ft tall tree fitting in your house with 8ft tall cielings and making more work for you. Then comes the fiasco of getting it set on the base with her holding the tree and saying it's "heavy and itches when she holds it", is this the experience you're looking for? If so, that's the place

(Disclaimer, it's not always that bad and I prefer a real tree vs. a fake one)

ETA: somewhere around $40 for a tree IIRC

Go to Jones with all the out of staters. Wait in line, cut your own tree, drag it down, hand over $100 for the tree then spend another 100 on shit for the kids....donuts, hot cocoa and sled rides and santa pics and some wine...

Oh and then water it every day, and get sap all over your hands while decorating and then by 4th of July, all the needles will be hopefully cleaned up.

Fuck that shit. Fake tree...decorate once..cover it and after new years drag it back to your christmas tree closet

After Jones robbed me i went to home depot for a real tree...then i said fuck this shit...fake ones only after that.

We go just over the border into Mass. from Granby. Think they're about $45-60. Walk around with the wife and kids for what seems like hours. To find the perfect tree. I've gotten smarter since our first outing. Now I shut my mouth and cut down the tree they pick. Way better than....well, you know. Get it home, probably cut it again, drag it in the house, throw it in the base, sit on couch and let family decorate it.

Real trees were fun until we brought home one that was loaded with insects that seem to have woken up when the heat hit them inside the house

South river rd in Coventry has a tree farm. We go there

Thinking of checking out Steve's in Andover . I drive by there a lot and the trees look great. We used to get ours in somers but they are closed now.

Eta Scott's is what I meant.

Getting old

Was that pell farm? Damn that's right down the street!

Used to do Dzens. Now believe it or not Stew Leonards.  The trees are super fresh. You point to the size and type you want. They wrap it in the mesh, carry it to t he cashier then they trim it anyway you like then they carry it to your car and tie it down for you. You never touch the thing until you get home.  The kids that help won't even take a tip. Unless you really have to cut your own this is as good as it gets.

BTW if you buy an artificial tree for Christmas, Baby Jesus weeps.

IIts hemlock hill that closedThey gave out lolly pops and a calendar when you exited . It was where we got our tree since we were married. We'd be there for  hours picking out a tree.

This must be the same place we go to.  I cant remember the name of the place though.  

The trick is to go a little before they close(up to an hour) that way they're forced to hurry up and pick one  

Dont forget a chainsaw either unless you want to sit there with a bandsaw while you wife tells you that your cutting it wrong  (Not that this has happened to me since I've always brought a chainsaw, but I've seen it happening to other guys)

We've had our own run of bad luck over the years, buying fresh trees.

Jones used to be $40 per tree (cut-your-own). Now it's $65. The price went up 25 bucks in ten year's time. And malloy says the economy is doing great? with no inflation? Fuck you malloy!

After the price went up to $50, I freaked out and we got a fresh tree locally, at a guy less than a mile away. Great tree and only $25.00. I think he grows trees to get a break on taxes. And he DOESN'T spray for spiders! We went home, decorated the tree, and the next morning, after the warmth woke up the eggs... We had a fucking cocoon wrapped tree, with bajillions of baby spiders crawling all over the tree! It was like that Tim Burton Nightmare Before Christmas film. So I took pictures of it, vacuumed as much as I could and drove down to Mr. Spider Tree Guy (as we affectionately call him now) and he gave me my 25 bucks back.

The next year we went back to Jones.

Since my wife's birthday is in late November, and in order for her to get her stupid fucking live Christmas tree, we cut a deal... Her birthday present is a tree from Jones Tree farm. So, for $65 I'm off the hook each and every year, when it comes to getting her a present. Plus, it makes her day enough to still give me a blowjob.

But that first tree we got, after making that little bargain... That's the year the old water pan at the base of the stand sprung a leak and the oak flooring soaked up all the water and buckled liked potato chips.

That was a good day of fighting.

Also, and most especially, since her folks are the Santa and Mrs. Claus at the Danbury Mall, there's quite the Christmas sentiment going on in their family. My feelings in regards to a live Christmas tree, take a back seat to what's going on in the family I married into. This is the fifth year my in-laws have come up from Florida to stay with us for two months, so they can get their Santa on. They're originally from Georgia, so they've got a fairly thick Southern accent. They also owned and operated their own Christmas tree farm on the property they lived on. They had something like 280 acres and they grew whatever varieties their soil and heat could grow. But they got older and couldn't keep up with it, without hiring everyone in town to tend to it. Now they just play Santa.




So, if you're in the Danbury Mall before 3:30, that's my father-in-law, smiling and waving at the kids and cursing out all the stupid, liberal yankees who've destroyed a beautiful state. He used to do it all day, every day... But this year they realized how exhausting it's been and they contracted for a second shift Santa, to do the other half of the day. And the Santa they did get, is an NRA instructor who's got no love for malloy either!

Bought a fake tree several years ago. Had a problem one year when the dog thought the tree was indoor plumbing.

Mike

This is why I love this man.

I used to do all that chit with the kids too.

I got a faker that looks more real than a live tree.
Yeah needles.... Nope

And you wouldn't have drapes or a carpet either.
They love CS grenades btw...ask me how I know.

Jesus's mom picked my tree out for me. And she gave me a coupon.

Been going to the same tree farm in Ellington/Somers area for 25 years. It was just moved down the street. Ill come back and post again when I can remember the damn name. The first cold day has me whipped right now and I can't think of anything.

Were apartment dwelling right now and we're doing the fake tree.. Fake tree is fucking bullshit. No needles or responsibility is nice but Im still young and I want a real fucking tree. And it smells great. Plus, by the time I've got all the fake ass branches on this thing all spread out my arms look like I just got done fighting a tornado full of cats.

As soon as I buy a house, my sixteenth or seventeenth order of business is planting my next 4 years Christmas trees. I'm not paying for that shit, I've got too many guns to buy.

ETA: First clue my brain is giving me - it used to be on Pinney Road.

ETA2: I think it is called Hemlock Hill Farms now, it used to be Elm Knoll.

Bought a fake tree 10 years ago. We have not,put it up in 3 yrs. I hate decorating the tree and so does my son. My wife does all the decorating and he and I carry the crap in and out of the attic. So finally we won and no more decorations are hung for any holiday. We go to my parents for Christmas anyway. We stopped doing presents for everyone. My wife and I give our son a present and that is it. Makes for a nice relaxing holiday season and no bills.

I remember our first house had cathedral ceilings and we would by the biggest damn tree to stuff in there. Bigger is better ! That's what she said! hahaha really that's what my wife would say! One night I was watching TV with our dog and this gigantic tree fell on top of us! That scared the shit outta me and the dog. It was a Clark Griswold moment.

I used the same fake one for about 20 years before I finally bought another fake one.  I haven't calculated all the money, not to mention time that I have saved over the years.





 

Bah. Humbug.

We bring our dog and he tries to piss on every tree lol. I took a picture and was gonna use it as a Christmas card.

Bad news in the name of progress:

If you're down in the SECT area, hit up Ukleja's Tree Farm in Waterford for Cut-your-own, or Scott's Farm Market in Old Saybrook for pre-cut. Both businesses are strong RKBA supporters, and are not super expensive.

They moved the entrance and there is a new name.
DZEN Christmas Tree Farm - apparently not affiliated with DZEN Tree Farm.

This is all per Facebook, and I am confused.

I blame Obama.

Hahaha he just read about it uh.. saw it uh on the news...uh.....Bush's fault.

Dzen is where we usually go because we've got high ceilings and can fit a 9 footer.  Last year Dzen told us they were closing.  Not only that, in order to turn over the property back to the original owners, they were going to have to pull EVERY SINGLE STUMP from EVERY SINGLE TREE to bring the land back to original condition.  That's what they told us.  If they are under new ownership, that's news to me.

Funny story.  We pick our trees every year outside of using an artificial tree for a few years.  The damned thing was a pain to store so we tossed it and stayed with real.  We'd go out in September and actually pick our tree.  The farm we went to in Suffield (Markowski's I think) had a nice selection and we saw a number of trees with tags on them claiming them for this family and that.  Well, one year we returned only to find our selected tree cut down  by some unscrupulous person or persons.  So, the next year, we tagged our tree with the name of our Church.  Never had a problem after that.

Also, bringing in a tree from the field into your home could cause some surprises.  One year we discovered a bird's nest with old eggs in it.  Gross.  Another year my wife was beginning to hang ornaments when, no kidding, a field mouse jumped out right past her.  You'd think someone had stabbed her for goodness sakes.  Caught the little bugger and out the door he went.  

There's nothing as good smelling as a fresh tree that you cut yourself and they last a very long time.  

Rome

Here's an updated link to why there are TWO Dzen farms.

http://wtnh.com/2014/11/20/new-development-forces-family-tree-farm-to-close-after-45-years/

I live just up the road from Jones so that is where we go. Kids enjoy it, as does the wife so I suffer.

Can't do it this year as I just had wrist surgery.

we killed our tree on sunday, at scotts in andover. its the last one ever for us. fake for now on.

We also went to Scott's,  they have some great trees there

We are very happy with it.It's not as fun now that the kids are all grown up.

Went with the blue spruce from Zden in Ellington. Nice and prickly. Helps keeps the kids from touching it!

Ours is prickly also. I had scratches on my arm all night.

We don't worry about kids just our dogs max and boris. They walk around it like a couple of hoodlums  getting ready to mug someone.

Hmm.  I always thought a blue spruce kind of smells like dog urine when you get it into a warm house!

I have given up on live trees.  Just to expensive, and during the days when I heated with a wood stove, too much of a fire hazard.  We go with a fake tree, and hang a real wreath to get the evergreen aroma in the house.

LMAO  



Used to get the real tree when I was a kid but that was a long time ago.  I think they were 15 or 20 bucks back then.  I just do the fake one.  It can be put back in the basement after the holidays and I don't have to buy a new one next year.  





 

Have had decent luck at Laviana's (1684 Chamberlain Highway. Kensington, CT). Not a tree expert but they have several different types / sizes. It's a short walk from the parking area (but note that some portions are on a heavily steeped hill, depending on who else is going). Pretty sure it was still $40 last year, they also have wreathes etc.