WHILST the majority of us gear up for the festive season a month or so before Christmas Day, for some it’s a yearlong affair.
Christmas trees, of the real variety, begin to feature at most garden centres and farms in the weeks leading up to December 25.
But what many people don’t realise is that it can take up to a decade for an average sized Christmas tree to grow.
“It can take up to 10 years before an Irish-grown Christmas tree is in peak condition and ready for harvesting,” Chair of the Irish Christmas Tree Growers Association, Dermot Page told The Irish Post.
“As growing conditions have been good this year, trees are displaying particularly good colour, so we’re expecting a very good crop for 2015.”
The organisation is expecting its 80 members to produce around 550,000 trees by the end of the year, following the careful selection process, which begins in August.
“They start with labelling the trees in the fields so they know which ones are to be harvested and how many trees they will have to sell,” Mr Page said.
“They then start taking orders from retailers and wholesalers. Harvesting the trees begins in mid-November with the first cutting heading for export.”
The most popular trees in Ireland are the Nordmann Fir and the Noble Fir, however, the British and European markets prefer smaller tree varieties.
Of the estimated half a million trees to be produced this year, 200,000 will be sold to overseas markets, with 90 per cent being exported to Britain; the remaining trees will be sold to Germany, Belgium, France and the Netherlands.
Mr Page said that the value of the industry to the Irish economy is estimated to be €15million with exports worth an additional €6million.
Whilst many people view Christmas trees as a seasonal business, Mr Page said that hands-on work, including weeding and pruning, across the 5,000 acres of trees planted in Ireland takes place throughout the year.
Brown Thomas' festive window display takes 12 months to planChristmas tree growers are not the only ones planning long-term, the man behind Dublin department store Brown Thomas’ festive window displays begins the mammoth task in January each year.
Creative Director John Redmond said that that the process takes 12 months, because a lot of time is spent sourcing the right products.
Brown Thomas, whose sister store in Britain is Selfridges, teamed up with Irish children's author Ciara Molloy Tan to create this year’s ‘Store of Wonders’ theme.
"This year, we have gone back to the simple pleasure of a great story well told and have decided to celebrate the art of storytelling,” said Mr Redmond. “We are doing fairytales and enchanted stories with a Brown Thomas twist".
Hogans Farm in Kells, Co. Meath are a business that also kicks-off festive proceedings in the summer well in advance of Christmas Day - with an average-sized turkey taking up to 14 to 22 weeks to grow to size.
The farm, which was set up in 1955 by Martin and Teresa Hogan, who reared their first Christmas turkeys – 70 in total - in 1962.
“In the summer months of July, August and September the Christmas season kicks off with the arrival of our day old turkey poults,” they said.
