However, if the property doesn’t sell, the landowner may allow the Burnett family to continue to farm the land until it does sell. Burnett and his son Travis purchased the tree farm from Carl Holloway in 1999, when Holloway decided to focus 100 percent of his time on his tree farm in Nipomo, Burnett said. “My son Travis worked for Carl for 10 years and always wanted to buy the farm one day,” he said. Mark and his son have now been farming together for 10 years.
The farm sells 1,000 to 2,000 trees per year and its most popular trees are the Noble Fir and the Monterey Pine. Monterey Pines take three to five years to grow to maturity, and Nobles actually take up to three times as long to reach the same height, he says. Mark and Travis gets their Noble trees shipped in from Washington; however, they are only four days old from when they are cut, and are kept in water. Noble trees will only grow in high altitudes and colder climates — the opposite of the Santa Ynez Valley’s moderate temperatures.
Mark says he loves the Christmas tree business because everyone is so happy when they visit, and he enjoys seeing all of the families that come year after year. Since Mark and Travis enjoy the business so much they are looking into other alternatives such as finding new land to grow on or shipping trees in from Washington to keep the business alive.
Many local residents feel disappointed that the tree farm may not be around in the future. “Coming here symbolizes the holidays and being with family,” said Moraya Cleary of Los Olivos, who has been coming to Burnett’s for seven years. “I feel sad about it, and I don’t know where else to go to get our Christmas tree.” Mark and his son say they have enjoyed meeting families year after year and have plenty of stories to share from their tenure as owners of the farm.
Travis has especially enjoyed the variety of ways people have tied the large Nobles and Pines to fit inside or on top of small cars to take home. “One time, someone bought a 12-foot pine and took it home inside a Honda CRX with about four feet of the tree inside the car and the rest of it hanging out the back,” Travis said, laughing. His father says some of his fondest memories are when people come to the farm to celebrate birthdays that fall around the holidays.
The farm is a family run business; however, it does have a group of employees who enjoy coming back year after year. Luke Ensign of Buellton has been working for Burnett’s for three years and enjoys being outdoors and meeting new people. “This is really the best tree farm in the Valley because it is so family oriented,” Ensign said. Mark has kept a long-standing philosophy that if a customer comes in for a tree, they will not leave without one. He said he has not raised his prices since 2004 and feels that he does not have a lot of competition, even with stores like Wal-Mart and Home Depot.
“What a lot of people don’t know is that at Wal-Mart they freeze their trees in early October and then take them out and throw them on the ground when it’s time to ship them,” he states. “They will be dead in a week, and you only saved $10.”
Mark says that even in today’s economy people have not stopped purchasing a Christmas tree. “They may get one that is a little bit shorter than last year, but people haven’t cut back from getting a tree,” he said, adding he feels this is because buying a tree makes people happy and excited for the holidays. Mark hopes everyone will come over to the farm to say hello and have a cup of hot cocoa before the holidays are out because he has appreciated being the Valley’s favorite Christmas tree farm for the last 10 years.