On the hunt for the perfect Christmas tree

Emerson Salzmann took a close look at the pine tree he and his mother, Sarah, cut down Sunday afternoon at Reindeer Ridge Christmas Tree Farm in the hills south of Sebastopol.

“Hey, there’s a ladybug on it,” the sharp-eyed first-grader declared.

The two of them searched for an hour among the roughly 10,000 trees planted in neat rows on the 7.5-acre farm, with time out for Emerson to grab the handle and glide on the pint-sized zipline in the tree farm’s playground.

“That was so fun,” he said, emphatically.

The third weekend before Christmas is typically the busiest for Christmas tree farms, said Debbie Garavaglia, who runs the farm along with her husband, Paul.

Their sloped bare earth parking lots were packed at?1 p.m., but the big crush came earlier in the day from San Francisco 49ers and Oakland Raiders fans intent on snagging a tree in time to make it home for the 1:25 p.m. kickoff of the football game between the Bay Area rivals.

Santa Claus, resplendent in a scarlet suit with snow-white trim and matching beard, said that any Sunday in December with a Niners game cuts into tree sales a bit. This Santa is Reindeer Ridge neighbor Ron Cammock, who enjoys coming over for a few hours to hand out little candy canes to kids and biscuits to dogs, who are welcome - on a leash - at the tree farm.

Bailey, the aging Bott family dog, accepted a free snack.

“We finally found a tree,” said Sarah Bott of San Anselmo, who came up with her husband, Charles, and their boys, Noah, 8, and Oliver, 5. “There’s so many trees, it’s hard to pick one out,” Sarah said.

“I like this experience for the kids,” she said, calling the tree farm “more Christmasy” than a lot full of cut trees. Most years, she said, the Botts find their tree in the Tehachapi Mountains near Los Angeles, where relatives reside.

Sarah handled Sunday’s tree search, and Charles cut down her selection. “You have to cut quickly before she spots another one,” he said, smiling.

Her choice was a Douglas fir about nine feet tall. “We might be taking some off the bottom,” Sarah said.

Up at the ridgetop playground, with a gorgeous view of the surrounding hills, Kareem Shamma, 6, took his fourth or fifth ride on the zipline, a wire not much more than six feet off the ground that ends at a padded post.

Scary? “No, not at all,” Kareem said.

Mohammed Shamma and his wife, Heidi Saleh, were making their first visit to Reindeer Ridge with Kareem and his sister, Leila, 4, after moving from Berkeley to Petaluma in September.

The family used to get pre-cut trees at an urban tree lot in Berkeley, Shamma said. “We may have had a fake tree a few times - with lights and frosting,” he confessed. From a big chain store.

But the rural experience is a big reason why they moved to Sonoma County, he said.

Shamma said he liked the look and aroma of the pre-cut Noble firs in the barn at Reindeer Ridge. Saleh had other intentions. “I want to cut one down,” she said.

The Garavaglias are in their 28th season of selling Christmas trees. They have a dozen varieties, including the usual firs and pines, as well as some exotic varietals like Vanderwolf’s pyramid pine and an Arizona cypress called Blue Ice.

One might think green trees are the holiday standard, but Paul said people like blue and yellow ones, too.

The ranch was an apple orchard when they bought it in 1985, and the Garavaglias gradually replaced the fruit trees with Christmas varieties. It’s a year-round chore, said Paul, who works for four months wielding a machete to prune the trees.

Debbie Garavaglia grew up on the nearby Garlock Tree Farm, run by her parents for?35 years and now operated by her brother, Keith.

There are about a dozen Christmas tree farms in Sonoma County, fewer than there used to be, the Garavaglias said.

Emerson Salzmann is going to get holiday goodies this morning, though not under the pine tree he and his mom took home. They celebrate German Christmas, when “der Nikolaus” stuffs candy and small gifts in the shoes of deserving boys and girls.

He’s been good, asserted Emerson, who attends Salmon Creek School near Occidental.

And there will be presents under the tree on Christmas morning, Sarah Salzmann said.

You can reach Staff Writer Guy Kovner at 521-5457 or guy.kovner@pressdemocrat.com. ?On Twitter @guykovner.