Heavy rains have led to fewer Sonoma County tree shoppers cutting their own perfect firs

They came, they saw, they purchased.

The Thomas family arrived at Kringle’s Korner Christmas Trees about 4 p.m. earlier this week. By 4:15, they’d picked out a 7½-foot Noble fir - “always get a Noble,” declared Mark Thomas, clearly a creature of habit - which was then shaken, netted and carted to the checkout counter at this popular pop-up emporium on Mark West Springs Road.

Such ruthless efficiency has not always been their holiday hallmark. “I have two older sisters,” said Jordan Thomas, a student at San Jose State University. “When they were around, this used to take half a day.”

The Thomas crew had driven up from Petaluma Tuesday, where until recently they’d cut down their tree every December at a nearby tree farm. But the vast selection at Kringle’s Korner had won them over.

Persistent rains since Thanksgiving have pushed some North Bay shoppers like the Thomases to retail lots like Kringle’s Korner, at the expense of more rustic - and remote - “choose and cut” farms.

Traffic has been markedly slower at the Garlock Tree Farm, south of Sebastopol. Owner Keith Garlock blames beastly weather.

“We get a lot of clients up from San Francisco and the East Bay, and if I were them I wouldn’t drive up either,” he said, “in the weather we’ve been having.”

Whether at a tree farm or pre-cut lot or a charmless big box chain store like Home Depot, Americans are buying Christmas trees in ever larger numbers. Some 32.8 million people in the U.S. bought real Christmas trees in 2018, up from 27.4 million the year before, according to a recent survey from the National Christmas Tree Association. Consumers bought 23.6 million artificial trees last year, an increase of 2.5 million over 2017.

Morgan Gutzman, 27, manager of Kringle’s Korner, said business has been brisk despite atmospheric rivers, and because of the compressed 2019 holiday season. This year’s late Thanksgiving left just four weekends - one fewer than normal - between that holiday and Christmas.

“There’s so much rain failing that people aren’t going out and cutting a tree,” Gutzman said. “They’re coming to where it’s muddy but not quite as muddy, and buying a pre-cut tree.”

That tracks with the sales at places like Kringle’s Korner, and 7 miles south at Crazy Rudolph’s, which by Wednesday had sold all but a few hundred of its 2019 allotment of 3,000 pre-cut trees.

In stark contrast to the ironclad discipline of the Thomases was the dawdling, disputatious family of five ranging up and down a nearby row of Douglas firs at Kringle’s Korner.

“I really like that big tall one,” said Zach, 21.

“It won’t fit in the house,” said his brother, Jarred, 15. Nor could they reach a consensus on whether the tree should be flocked - sprayed with tiny white fibers that create an illusion of snow.

They were unified on one front: it was a good thing, all agreed, that their older brother wasn’t home yet from New York City. That sibling has a soft spot for homely, crooked, asymmetrical “Charlie Brown trees,” according to his mother, who preferred not to give her name. She took the delays and disagreements in stride.

“I’m totally fine with it. We actually have a great time here,” she said.

Gutzman, whose father worked as an “elf” or tree-toter in this business half a century ago, said, “we are a tradition in people’s families.”

Kringle’s Korner moved to its current location, just south of the Luther Burbank Center for the Arts, 16 years ago.

While the business advertises that it’s open only until 9 p.m., customers can be found walking the rows, agonizing over their decisions, until 9:30 most nights.

After all, Gutzman said, “People don’t pick out a tree the way they pick out a bottle of ketchup.”

No less beloved, but far less sedate, is Crazy Rudolph’s, in the parking lot of the Santa Rosa Veterans Memorial Building. It’s owned by Gianni Messmer, a veteran who hires veterans and sells trees to vets at discounted rates. Those with no discount will pay $39.99 for a 4- to 5-foot Douglas fir; a Noble fir the same size is $9 more. The taller the tree, the wider the price gap between the economical Doug and the more fragrant Noble. A Doug fir between 8 and 9 feet costs $69.99 - a full $65 cheaper than a Noble that height.

Laid out in the shadow of the Highway 12 overpass, and under the bright red nose of a 20-foot high, inflatable Rudolph, this place is part tree retailer and part amusement park, complete with funnel cakes, corn dogs, playhouses, miniature electric cars, a play area with fake snow and carnival-barking co-manager Jimmy Casares.

Whether he’s posting Instagram videos of himself making snow angels in the “snowbox” or spinning on a tree stand while being “flocked” by co-manager Jerry Miller, Casares, more than anyone else, puts the crazy in Crazy Rudolph’s.

“Whether they buy a tree or not, we want people to have a good time,” Casares said.

And while Garlock remains optimistic about this weekend - the forecast is favorable - he’s OK if sales are a little down this season. He is a State Farm agent so he doesn’t depend on the tree income.

He grows Christmas trees because he’s been involved in this business since he was 5 years old - he’s 58 now - and because it’s deeply fulfilling to provide people with experiences that form their family traditions.

“It binds you to them in a unique way,” he said. “It’s a privilege.”

A light but steady rain fell, and the parking lot had been empty for 20 minutes Wednesday afternoon when Dave and Karen LeKander pulled up to the tree farm.

Before arming themselves with saws, then hiking out to find their tree, Karen LeKander expressed her appreciation of this local, family-owned farm that hadn’t sold out, as so many others have, to a winemaker or real estate developer.

While there are far more profitable uses to which he could put his land, Garlock said, “I don’t want to grow grapes. This is the tradition I was raised in, so this is what I’ll continue to do.”

Before naming his Petaluma business the Little Hills Christmas Tree Farm, Kriss Mungle briefly considered the handle “Mungle’s Jungle.”

“My wife didn’t think that was such a great idea,” he said. And yes, that is his given first name. Mungle invites you to check his birth certificate. It’s mere coincidence that Kriss grew up to peddle Christmas trees.

Like Garlock, Mungle’s clientele is far-flung, with folks driving from “Sacramento, San Jose and everywhere in between.” Unlike Garlock, he’s been swamped for several weekends, and has just about run out of trees for this season. Over the last five or so years, Mungle said, customers have been coming earlier and earlier. The day after Thanksgiving, it was a 30-minute wait to get into his parking lot on Chapman Lane in Petaluma.

One reason for the strength of his business, Mungle figures: attrition. Where some dozen Christmas tree farms once dotted the landscape around Petaluma, that number is down to two. And the other one, the Larsen’s Christmas Tree Farm, is owned by his in-laws.

Mungle is not concerned about losing customers to the big box stores. Someone who buys a tree at a Home Depot “probably wasn’t going to come out here, anyway.”

Garlock is similarly sanguine. “I’m an optimist,” he said, predicting a busy weekend.

“But you know what? If a tree doesn’t get cut down this year, that just means it’ll be there next year.”