Kate Byrne has seen it all in the 26 years she’s been selling Christmas trees, including an engagement.

“The couple were talking away and the next thing he got down on one knee and he proposed to her. And every year now he comes back and buys his tree – with his three kids.

“Then there’s people who come to you and they could leave not speaking to one another over the Christmas tree, it’s a big thing for people.”

Kate grows Christmas trees on 10 acres in Hacketstown, Co Carlow, and sells them outside the overflow car park in Stillorgan, Dublin, for several weeks before Christmas.

The Christmas tree enterprise was originally founded by Kate’s husband Tom, his father and his brother.

“I married Tom and I married the Christmas trees,” laughs Kate.

Kate grows three types of trees; nobel fir, Norway and nordmanniana.

“The noble would have been always popular because there’s a lovely smell off it, the nordmanniana is a lovely new breed that has come in now – it’s a lovely shaped tree – and then the Norway is the old-time tree that you’d be picking the pines out of the floor for years after,” says Kate, “but still some people love them. If they have a timber floor or if they’re putting them outside they love the beautiful smell off them, but they do shed.”

Listen to a discussion of Kathryn's farm in our podcast below:

Listen to "Christmas trees, sentimental buyers and Red Bull" on Spreaker.

Kate has seen the Christmas tree market change over recent years. She says that during the Celtic Tiger “there were people buying two trees, one for the sitting room, a little one for the kitchen and maybe even a tree for the child’s bedroom,” says Kate.

“When people didn’t have the money then, they still wanted the perfect tree but they weren’t as willing to give you as much.”

It takes eight years to grow a Christmas tree. And they need a lot of minding – which includes weeding, spraying, feeding, pruning and just generally being looked after.

“So it’s not a matter of putting a plant in the ground and going back in eight years’ time and going: ‘Oh wow I’ve a Christmas tree,’” explains Kate. “Pruning the trees is a big job, and then they have to be bud picked as well, taking the buds especially off the top.”

It’s certainly labour intensive work but she gets a lot of help from “Reilly” who works with her.

The typical damp Irish climate is perfect for Christmas trees – too hot and they’ll get scorched or parched, and too cold (specifically too frosty), and the ground will crack and the trees won’t root.

Kate says she has some customers coming to her for the last 20-25 years.

“This man used to come with a trolley and about four or five kids with him and he’d be buying a tree for two or three houses – he’d have the neighbours’ kids with him and all.

“The last time he came to me, ah he was gone very shook and very old ... but he was such a gentleman and I remember the last time he came and I said: ‘Well, are you going to argue with me this time?’ And he said: ‘I’m not able.’ And then he died the following year and his kids keep coming to us now.

“He used to put the tree in the trolley, it wasn’t even coming in a car or anything. It was actually that they bought the tree, argued with the girl, put the tree in the trolley and then they’d go singing down Glenalbyn.

“Another couple every year who come and buy their tree have their two Santy hats on, they carry the tree down to the pub, they have a drink in the pub, leave the two hats on the tree outside the door, have their hot whiskey or whatever, and then carry the tree down across the dual carriageway.”

If people buy a big tree and are based in Dublin, Kate’s team will deliver the tree to their home, and if customers bring their stand they will put the tree in a stand. They screw the stand into the base of the tree (they have water stands too) and they will net it.

Has Kate any top tips for making the most of a Christmas tree?

“I always say to people that if you have a water stand, put some Red Bull into it. There’s nourishment in Red Bull.”

Alternatively, Kate says you can put plant food or watery sugar into the stand too.

“I have a water stand here and I could never understand why there was no water in the tree – but he was drinking the water!” (she gestures to the dog).

So, does Kate keep the most amazing tree from her farm for her own house?

“I just go down and say: ‘That one will do.’ I put my tree up around 8 December and it’s not decorated then – I’ll come home some night to do that. When the kids were small I used to come home and the babysitter would be here and I used to put up the tree. For years they thought that fairies put up the tree – they were small at the time.

“You could be very lucky to find a nest in the tree and over the years I would have gathered nests. I bought little robins and I slip them into the nests, but now if I find a nest, I will give it to a child for their nature table for school and they’re made up. The nests are beautiful.

“I love decorating the Christmas tree and when January comes I love taking it down and washing everything and the light comes back into the room.”

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