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Most people start thinking about a real tree the weekend after Thanksgiving. By then the best fields have been picked over, because the families who do this every year came in October and tagged theirs.
Morris County has a handful of choose-and-cut farms, and they are genuinely different from each other. Here is what each one grows, when it opens, and which one suits the day you have in mind.
Tag Your Tree in October
This is the part most people miss. Some farms let you walk the fields early, pick your tree, and tie a tag on it. The tree stays in the ground until you come back to cut it in December, which means you get the shape you actually wanted instead of whatever is left.
Plut’s Christmas Tree Farm in Long Valley opens for tagging on the first weekend of October, weekends only, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. If you want a good tree from a small farm, that weekend is the whole ballgame.
The Farms
Plut’s Christmas Tree Farm, Long Valley
Flocktown Road. A ten acre choose-and-cut farm run by Karolina Plut, and the fourth farm in New Jersey to earn River-Friendly Farm certification, back in 2007.
Cutting starts the day after Thanksgiving, then Thursday through Sunday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. They are closed Monday through Wednesday. It is full service: they cut the tree, wrap it, and load it into your car. There is hot cocoa, cider, corn dogs and homemade funnel cakes, plus a gift shop and wreath shop selling handmade wreaths, kissing balls, canes, mailbox huggies, grave blankets and centerpieces.
This is the one to pick if you want the small farm version of the day rather than an attraction.
Alstede Farms, Chester
1 Alstede Farms Lane, 908-879-7189. About a thousand trees, and the widest species choice in the county: Douglas Fir, Concolor Fir, Fraser Fir, Balsam Fir and Noble Fir. Open 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily and weekends, from around November 20 into early January.
Alstede runs it as a full day out. A tractor-drawn wagon takes you through the fields to the Christmas Tree Barn, there is complimentary cocoa or cider by the fire, and their team will cut, bag, wrap and tie the tree to your car at no extra charge if you would rather not do it yourself. The marketplace carries pre-cut trees, wreaths, pine roping, grave blankets and holiday planters, and Moe’s does hot chocolate, specialty coffees, apple nachos and maple bourbon nuts.
They also run Country Christmas Weekends with free admission and a Brunch with Santa on select December dates that needs a reservation by table. Dates shift each year, so check before you plan around them.
Hidden Pond Christmas Tree Farm, Mendham
4 West Field Road, 973-865-6362. Around 500 trees: Blue Spruce, Norway Spruce, Fraser Fir and Canaan Fir. Open daily 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. from late November through Christmas Eve.
It sits a quarter mile west of the Black Horse Inn off West Main Street, opposite Lake Road and behind the municipal soccer fields, which is worth knowing because it is easy to drive past. If you want spruce rather than fir, this is your stop.
Village Tree Farm, Green Village
8 Meyersville Road, 908-413-5631. The smallest of the group at around 150 trees, with Blue Spruce, Norway Spruce, Douglas Fir, Concolor Fir and Fraser Fir. Weekends only, Saturday and Sunday 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., late November into mid December.
Small farm, short season, narrow window. Call before you drive out, because 150 trees do not last long.
Ort Farms, Long Valley
25 Bartley Road, 908-876-3351. Ort sells pre-cut trees rather than choose-and-cut, and pairs them with wreaths, Santa visits, farm animals and pony rides through December. Worth combining with their Winterfest, which runs a hayride through a holiday light trail and a barn lit by more than 30,000 lights.
Before You Go
No axes, no chainsaws. Farms supply the saws. This is a firm rule across New Jersey growers, not a preference.
Call first. Small farms sell out of good trees and close early when they do. A two minute phone call saves a wasted drive, especially in the second half of December.
Go in daylight. Almost every farm here closes at or before dusk, and several shut at 3 or 4 p.m. This is not an after-work errand.
Bring gloves, a tarp and rope. Even the farms that load your car for you leave you to deal with the other end.
Long Valley has more small growers than the ones listed here, and a few come and go from season to season, so it is worth a look around Flocktown and Bartley Roads if your first choice is picked over.
We update this page through the season as farms post their dates. For the rest of the holidays in the county, see our guides to Christmas lights in New Jersey, Christmas markets in New Jersey, and the Polar Express train ride in Whippany, plus what is on now in Morris County this month.
