Ed and Beth Myslowski operate Helen and Ed’s Tree Farm in Dorrance Twp., Luzerne County. It's one of many tree farms across Pennsylvania.
The family sold their first trees in 1963 from a small lot in Mountain Top. Eventually, they opened the farm to customers who still visit to choose and cut down their own Christmas trees.
The farm first planted Scotch pines. Now they sell Norway Spruce, Blue Spruce, Douglas, Fraser firs, white pine and other varieties of evergreens. Customers can also choose from pre-cut trees. Employees prep, drill and bale the trees and help to tie down trees for transporting.
Cathy Malkemes ran a hot cocoa stand on the farm on Saturdays and Sundays leading up to Christmas. The money she raised goes to ALS One Hope, a nonprofit which helps families with loved ones battling ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease.
Cathy started the foundation in 2017 to honor the memory of her husband, Kenneth L. Malkemes Jr., who battled ALS, according to the nonprofit's Facebook. Since then, ALS One Hope has provided gift cards around the holidays, monetary gifts, medical equipment and renovations to allow patients to be more comfortable in their own homes.
Christmas tree roots deep in Pa.
The roots of Christmas trees extend back to Rome and Egypt, according to the History Channel. Trees that remained green all year long had special meaning for ancient civilizations in the winter.
In 17th century, German families often built wooden pyramids trimmed with evergreen boughs and candles. Moravians in Bethlehem, Pa., decorated similar wooden structures around 1747. Indoor evergreens were introduced to the U.S. by Pennsylvania's German community in the 1820s.
The first documented Christmas tree in Pennsylvania belonged to Lancaster resident Matthew Zahn, who wrote about his family's tree in an 1821 diary entry, according to the Monroe County Historical Society.
Some Americans at first viewed the trees as pagan symbols and shunned them.
That changed in 1846. A sketch of Great Britain's Queen Victoria, her German-born husband, Prince Albert, and their children standing around a Christmas tree ran in the Illustrated London News. Christmas trees became all the rage.
U.S. President Calvin Coolidge started the national Christmas tree lighting ceremony in 1923. The first tree at Rockefeller Center in New York City was in 1931. It was small and unadorned.
Trees today
The first Christmas tree farm in the United States was in Mercer County, New Jersey, according to the Pennsylvania Christmas Tree Growers Association.
In Pennsylvania, there are more than 1,400 Christmas tree farms like Helen and Ed's, according to Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture. Pennsylvania ranks second in the nation for the number of Christmas tree farms, according to the tree growers association, who adds the state is fourth in the nation in number of Christmas trees cut each year.
Tree farms account for nearly 31,000 acres of land in Pennsylvania and produce about 1 million cut trees each year, according to the department of Agriculture.
