Yours for the taking: Cut your own Christmas tree in metro Atlanta

It can be a good idea to phone the farm ahead of time, particularly if you’re going to a smaller one with limited hours. Check with the farm or their website for the types of trees they grow and sell. For instance Fraser firs do not grow in Georgia’s climate, but local farms may get them from North Carolina and sell them on site, along with the trees you can cut, such as Leyland cypresses.

Berry’s Christmas Tree Farm

70 Mount Tabor Road, Covington. 770-786-1370, www.berrystreefarm.com.

Hours: 10 a.m.-7:30 p.m. daily

Features: Gift shop, hayrides, tree wrapping, saws provided. Santa Claus appearance.

Bottoms’ Christmas Tree Farm

5880 John Burruss Road, Cumming. 770-889-5235, www.bottomstreefarm.com.

Hours: 9 a.m. to dark today; thereafter 3 p.m. to dark Monday-Friday; 9 a.m. to dark Saturdays; closed on Sundays.

Features: Hayride on Saturdays. Complimentary marshmallow roast and apple cider. Farm animals on display. Homemade jams, jellies and bread. Custom-made wreaths. Tree stands.

Kinsey Family Farm

7170 Jot-em Down Road, Cumming. 770-887-6028, www.kinseyfamilyfarm.com.

Hours: 9 a.m.-6 p.m. today; thereafter noon-7 p.m. Monday-Fridas; 9 a.m.-6 p.m. weekends.

Features: Music, roasting marshmallows, and hot chocolate at the barn. Take a free wagon ride through the 35-acre tree plantation. Wreaths, garlands, tree stands and more.

Rex Christmas Tree Farm

950 Wilkerson Road, Rex. 770-389-1023, www.rextreefarm.com.

Hours: Afternoons Monday-Thursday; daylight hours Friday, Saturday, Sunday.

Features: Complimentary spiced hot cider, candy canes and cookies. Wreaths, tree stands and mistletoe are for sale.

Smith’s Choose and Cut

230 Davis Road, Fayetteville. Trees sold at red barn across from house. 770-487-7474 or 770-487-0664.

Hours: Noon-5 p.m. Monday-Friday; 10 a.m.-5 p.m. weekends.

Features: Saws provided.

Thompson’s Tree Farm

1829 Prospect Road, Lawrenceville. 770-513-2552, www.thompsonstreefarm.gacta.com.

Hours: 9:30-6 p.m. today; thereafter noon to 6 p.m. Monday-Friday; 9:30 a.m.-6 p.m. weekends.

Features: Hayrides on weekends. Goats and cows to feed. Gift shop with free hot chocolate and cider. Jams, jellies, wreaths and bows.

Worthington Tree Farm

145 Twin Oaks Drive, Hampton. 770-478-4355, www.georgiachristmastrees.com.

Hours: 9:30 a.m.-6 p.m. today; thereafter 2:30-6 p.m. Monday-Friday; 9:30-6 p.m. Saturday; 12:30-6 p.m. Sunday.

Features: Free hayrides to and from fields on weekend, weather permitting; children’s attractions, Christmas crafts, gifts, wreaths, bows, garland, tree decorations and more. Saws provided.

Yule Forest Hwy 155

3565 Ga. 155, North Stockbridge. 770-954-9356, www.aboutyule.com.

Hours: 9 a.m. to dark daily.

Features: Free apple cider and candy canes. Hayride, puppet show and petting zoo on the weekend. Outdoor classroom with exhibit on farming.

Some families find their Christmas tree in the attic. They rustle around, shake out the synthetic foliage and snap the tree into place. Others go to a nearby Christmas tree lot to choose from the evergreens on view.

However, there’s another way: Head out of town to a Christmas tree farm where you can stroll in the crisp air among growing trees, choose one and cut it yourself. For some families, this has become a festive annual excursion.

Christmas tree farms, which generally open on Thanksgiving or the day after, make it easy to pick and cut your own tree. Farms range from small operations open only on weekends to larger ones that offer tantalizing extras. You may be able to sip hot chocolate, listen to Christmas music or pet farm animals, depending on where you go. Farms often sell tree stands and wreaths, too.

Each year Susan Edgett and Bob Hudgens pull on their boots and drive south to Rex from their Atlanta home. There, they greet Edgett’s aunt and uncle, who own the Rex Christmas Tree Farm, and pick out their Christmas tree.

On the Northside, Gabe Nurmi and his wife, Kim, take their four children ages 1 to 9 to Kinsey Family Farm in north Forsyth County. They pile out of the car, get hot chocolate and then roam around looking for the just-right tree. When they’re done, they roast marshmallows at the farm’s fire pit before loading the tree and heading home for decorating.

The Kinsey farm has 15 acres of Christmas trees and another 35 acres of landscaping trees. Visitors can cut cypress trees or they can buy a pre-cut Fraser fir, a popular type of Christmas tree that doesn’t grow in North Georgia. For families who want the adventure of cutting their own, workers give them a bow saw and a wagon ride to the field. The trees are tagged with the height and price. After cutting down a tree, the customer drags it to a pick-up point, where employees retrieve it to bag, bale and tie it on a car.

The farm also has cows, goats, miniature horses and geese for the kids or the kid in you. You can buy a packet of feed and enjoy the animals.

“This is a working farm and we want people to experience the farm life,” owner Andy Kinsey says.

He has a small shop where local goods — some of them made on the farm — are sold. They include honey, fresh bread, jams, salsa and various ciders, including muscadine, peach and apple.

Weekends can be crowded. For a quieter experience, Kinsey suggests coming on a weekday.

Each person who buys a full-size tree gets a complimentary pewter ornament. The Nurmi children like to closely examine the ornament and compare it to the one they got the year before.

Tree selection

The types of trees available on Georgia farms include Leyland cypress, found in several varieties. It will not drop needles and does not have a smell, according to the Georgia Christmas Tree Association. Also grown locally are Arizona cypress, Virginia pine, white pine and red cedar, a traditional Georgia Christmas tree. Cedar will dry out quickly and should not be cut more than two weeks before Christmas, the association says.

At Yule Forest in Stockbridge, Allen Grant runs a fourth-generation family farm that’s been in business 34 years. Each visitor is greeted with hot cider and a candy cane. Then visitors are given a bow saw, price sheet and hand cart. The saw is easy to use, Grant says. It takes about 30 seconds to cut a tree.

Visitors are free to roam the 20 acres of Virginia pine, Green Giants and Leyland cypress. Grant also sells pre-cut Fraser firs. Christmas music plays in the field, and some visitors sing along.

The most difficult thing for customers, he says, is choosing a tree that’s the right size. Most people don’t require a tree taller than 7 or 7 1/2 feet.

“Out in the field, those look little,” he warns.

A tree will appear larger once you get it in your living room.

At Yule Forest, children can watch a puppet show and take a hayride through a cartoon forest that features around 300 characters including Santa and elves. The hayride stops at a petting zoo, where there are miniature horses, donkeys, goats, sheep, emus, pigs ducks, chickens, full-size horses and a miniature cow named Anabel.

Children can also play on an inflatable obstacle course with a 24-foot slide and an inflatable pillow that serves as a giant trampoline.

Families can visit the outdoor classroom, where school and day care groups come for field trips on weekday mornings. Exhibits teach kids about farm life, famous farmers, environmental preservation, and the science of climate, crops, and soil.

Grant says a family can come to cut a tree and spend 30 minutes to 3 hours on the farm, depending on the activities they want to do.

Anna Simonton contributed to this article