BELLVILLE — Sunday’s sunny weather offered idyllic conditions for Christmas tree shopping.
Many families could be found searching for the perfect pine at Kleerview Farm, a 230-acre farm in Bellville owned by Kevin and Debbie Kleer.
Opening day was Monday, Nov. 20. Each spring, 3,200 trees are planted at the farm, including white pine, scotch, blue and white spruce, Fraser fir, Balsam fir, Meyers spruce, Serbian spruce and Canaan firs.
According to Andrea Tingley, daughter of Kevin and Debbie Kleer, the most popular choice is the Fraser fir.
“We also have concolors that select people are getting more and more interested in, too, because they’re medium length, but they also have a very nice aroma to them,” she said.
In 2015, 45 percent of trees sold were firs, followed by white pine at 36 percent, spruce at 10 percent, and scotch at nine percent, according to the Kleerview website.
The farm saw an abundance of traffic during Thanksgiving weekend.
“Friday and Saturday we exceeded what we thought we bring out,” Tingley said.
Visitors hail from all over.
Tingley said, “Just yesterday, we had trees going to New York, West Virginia, Florida, Cincinnati, Cleveland…”
Some out-of-town visitors have family in the area, and others are drawn to the farm because of its reindeer.
In total there are nine reindeer at the farm, including two calves. The babies posed for pictures with children on Sunday, in between chomping on the handlers’ sweatshirts.
There are other animals at the farm, including two young pigs, four ducks, a mini horse, donkey and cattle.
Children oohed and aahed at the creatures. Others helped with the Christmas tree selection.
Dee Pierce of Mansfield already had her tree picked out within minutes of arriving at the farm, with the help of her granddaughters, Kacie and Keeli.
Getting a live Christmas tree is one of their family traditions, Pierce said.
“They also help me set up my village,” she said. “We have a big village, like 12 feet, four levels.”
While visiting Kleerview, they also planned to go on the hayride — another tradition.
Janie and Curtis Green of Lexington brought their grandsons to Kleerview.
Asked what type of tree they were looking for, Janie said, “The long needle one, but I can’t remember what it’s called.”
“Yeah, I can’t remember either,” Curtis said. “It’s a pine tree,” he said laughing.
As a family, they like to decorate the tree together.
“I used to work at Hallmark, so (the theme for decorating) is a lot of the cartoon shows and stuff like that, and whatever they like to put on it so it could be a family tree,” she said.
The Greens already have a Charlie Brown Christmas tree at home.
“I’m a Charlie Brown collector,” Janie said with a smile.
Kleerview Farm is open on weekdays from 1 to 5 p.m. and on weekends from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Santa Claus passes out candy canes at the farm on weekends.
