Cars and trucks with fresh-cut trees tied tightly to their roofs line the roads in central Ohio. Christmas trees, hand-picked and ready to be decorated, make their way to their holiday homes. For the Licking County-based farms they come from, each tree represents another season of growth, prosperity and generational impact.
At least three of those Licking County farms closed in the past two years – Homestead and M&M, both on Loudon Street in Granville, at the end of 2024, and the Messerall Family Tree Farm on Hardscrabble Road this year.
Read more: After more than 3 decades of family traditions, two Granville Christmas tree farms end sales
When farms close, their regular customers might find themselves searching for a new place to find a tree. The farms that are still open want holiday shoppers to know that they don’t plan on going anywhere.
Davies Tree Farm, at 5152 Loudon Street in Granville, has been family-owned and operated for three generations – the oldest farm currently operating in Licking County, which has about eight such farms and ranked fifth-highest among Ohio’s 88 counties in 2022 for the monetary sales of Christmas trees and other “woody crops.”
“First crop of trees was actually planted in ’37,” said Bill Davies, 66, who lives on the farm’s main property with his wife, Lisa, 59. “My grandfather started it, and we’ve had trees in various locations in the county.”
Davies said the farm has operated as a wholesale-style business for years, meaning that each tree costs the same – no matter the size – and customers are responsible for cutting, transporting, and securing their tree for the ride home.
“We’ve basically always sold on a wholesale-style basis,” Davies said. “Any tree, single price. ‘Well, don’t you charge by the foot?’ No. ‘Well, do you bail the trees, wrap the trees?’ Nope. I say, ‘We sell on a wholesale-type basis. If I wrap the trees, then I’m no longer doing a wholesale-type basis.’ That means I’m providing a service.”
Each season, the Davies produce multiple species of trees, including Norway spruces, Douglas and Canaan firs, and Eastern white pines, among others. This year, in the spring, the family planted thousands of trees over the course of about five weeks.
“This year we put in, what, 7,000 trees?” Lisa Davies said, glancing back at her husband. Both tree farmers clutched hot cups of coffee and sported camouflage-patterned coats.
“About 5,000,” Bill said, shaking his head.
“Yeah,” Lisa said, “Between 5 and 7 [thousand] is what we put in. And this year, it was all hand-planted.”
Of the 120 acres the family owns, about 40 are used for growing trees. The rest are rented out to other farmers and used for hunting, raising farm animals, and just living, Bill said.
“There’s actually six dogs … and currently three goats down there, and three Highland cows,” he said proudly, pointing north past his front porch toward a collection of sheds and fencing.
For the customers who come each year to Davies Tree Farm in search of their seasonal centerpiece, Bill Davies has no intention of closing anytime soon. When asked if he thought the farm would continue operating within his family, Davies said, “I’m sure it will. We asked the kids, ‘Would you want to keep it going?’ And they said yes. I said, ‘Well, plan on some work.’”
He hopes that his children’s drive to support the farm will carry through to his grandchildren, too.
Tending trees all year ’round
At the very northern border of Licking County, Woodridge Tree Farm sits atop hundreds of acres of winding hills and fields at 801 Baker Road near Utica. The farm has been owned and operated by Roger Oberhauser and his family since 1994.
“We started pretty small,” Oberhauser said. Now, the farm owns 140 acres of land and uses 220 acres for production, some of which they lease long-term from other property owners.
Operating year-round, Woodridge’s main crops aren’t Christmas trees. About 3,000 of the 10,000 or more trees they plant each season are firs or pines. Outside of the holiday season, the farm grows plants commonly used for commercial landscaping.
“We’ve benefited from the data centers and the Amazon warehouses, because all of those have to have a certain amount of greenery and borders,” Oberhauser said. When asked if he had any concerns that the land the farm operates on would be taken over by the influx of data centers in Licking County, Oberhauser laughed.
“Well, the ground has tripled in price in the last five years here, and that’s partly due to the Intel project,” he said. “It’d be hard for a young guy to expand right now.”
He paused, looking out over the acres of young Christmas trees in front of him. “Yeah, it concerns me. I’m 58 years old, and hopefully my son would be interested in this. He’s expressed a lot of interest.”
According to Oberhauser, much of the success the farm has experienced over the last two decades can be attributed to the team he employs 10 months out of the year.
“You guys do all the work!” he said as his team of four laughed. “It’s important to have good workers, and I’ve got really good workers. Hopefully they think I’m a good boss.”
In a chorus of affirmation, his team agreed.
Trees, flowers and an experience
North of Granville just off of State Route 661, Timbuk Farms & Garden Center is also open year-round. Located at 2030 Timbuk Road, Timbuk transitions from flowers – it hosts a tulip festival in the spring – into a Christmas wonderland during the winter months.
Timbuk was owned and operated by the Schmidt family from 1952 to 2004, when it was taken over by LaVonda Gibson and her husband, Jim.
“We came into this wanting to take over the greenhouse business, and the Christmas trees came with it,” said Gibson, 53, of Granville. “But the Christmas trees are a lot more fun than the greenhouse.”
The farm and greenhouse span approximately 300 acres, with much of the land dedicated to growing Christmas trees for the holiday season. Due to Timbuk’s longtime role as a staple part of Licking County’s tree industry, Gibson said that many of their customers are decades-long regulars.
“We’ve had customers that have been coming here for 40 years,” she said.
Sisters Audrey and Corinne Conaway visited the farm in mid-December to revisit their childhood memories, they said. The Conaways grew up in Columbus, where Audrey, 28, still lives, and Corinne, 29, now lives in Atlanta, Georgia.
“She’s coming to visit for Christmas, and we always came here as kids, so we’re doing all the kid Christmas things we used to do,” Audrey said. “I think it’s been 25 years since we last came here, so we had to make it over here.”
Corinne’s strongest memory of the farm was the relief of coming back into a warm building after canvassing the hills covered in trees.
“We would be outside for so long, picking the perfect tree, be freezing cold after cutting it down, and then come inside into the warmth and sit by Santa Claus and the fire, getting some hot chocolate,” she said.
The farm has also come a long way since the Conaways visited as children, they said.
“Now they have adorable baby cows, so it’s even better than when we were kids!” Audrey said, pointing behind her sister to two cows, Paddy and Isle. The wooly Highland cows have been with the farm for about six months and are both one year old.
Ron McLaughlin has worked at Timbuk for eight years, driving the bus that takes customers across the hundreds of acres of Christmas trees. “Before I started here, I couldn’t tell you anything about trees. Now, I can tell each of them apart,” said McLaughlin, 72, of Granville.
While LaVonda Gibson isn’t looking to give over the Christmas tree business to someone else yet, she said she’s hopeful that Timbuk will continue on without her someday.
“Somebody will continue the tradition,” she said confidently. “I don’t plan on going anywhere anytime soon.”
Margo Ellis writes for TheReportingProject.org, the nonprofit news organization of Denison University’s Journalism program, which is supported by generous donations from readers. Sign up for The Reporting Project newsletter here.