Seven decades of selling Christmas trees

Like so many small stands hawking pine, you’ll find trees from tall to the small, Fraser to Douglas in the Albemarle Square parking lot.

What makes this stand different isn’t the trees. It’s the history behind the man selling them. George Cason has been in holiday home decor since the end of the Great Depression, through World War II and — with a little time off for military service — right up to date.

Cason, 78, is just carrying on a family tradition.

“I’ve been doing it a long time,” Cason admitted. “My oldest brother — he’s 92 now — he and my daddy started selling Christmas trees almost 80 years ago down on Main Street. All seven of us boys helped out and I’ve been pretty much doing it every year since.”

The competition is fierce, although selling Christmas trees isn’t a path to great riches.

Most tree vendors do not need business permits or site permits, local officials say, making it hard to know exactly how many vendors are out there. But fear not, they are abundant.

On the other end of the parking lot from Cason is a stand for the local Boy Scouts of America, one of several the Scouts run in the area.

Another tree stand sits across Rio Road in the Fashion Square parking lot. Others are scattered about major thoroughfares. Add to that grocery stores, hardware stores and assorted other businesses peddling wood and you’ve got some serious rivalries.

Cason says the nature of the competition has changed in the past seven decades.

“Back in the Depression we’d pick a corner down on Main Street and set up the trees every morning and then we’d have to take them back down at night,” he recalled. “We’d store them over on Water Street and at least one of us boys would sleep on that corner overnight. Someone had to be there to save the place, otherwise someone would come along the next morning and take it from you, if they thought business was better there.”

The daily loading and unloading of trees coincided with forest forays to acquire nature’s wreath-making materials, which the Cason family made and sold at their tree stands.

“We were pretty much busy most of December,” he said. “It was a family business and it became a tradition.”

It was on a Main Street corner near a bank that a young George Cason learned a valuable lesson about free enterprise.

“We had this one big tree and it was so big that nobody wanted it and it was too big to carry around and so big nobody would want it,” Cason recalled. “My daddy left me there one night and told me that if anyone came along who wanted that tree, I should just give it to him for nothing.”

Then entered a man in a nice suit and the need for the biggest and best.

“This guy came out and he looked at the tree and adjusted his nice suit and asked how much I wanted for it. I told him $20. Mind you that was in the middle of the Depression and $20 was a lot. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a crisp, new $20 bill and handed it to me,” Cason recalled. “Let me tell you, that was $20 my daddy never saw!”

Mr. Cason is more than making up for that purloined $20 by helping out the local Meals on Wheels. Cason has donated a percentage of tree profits for nearly five years to help feed folks who cannot cook for themselves or get out for a meal.

“You know, they do a good service for people,” Cason said. “They do a lot for folks that need help, feeding them, and all. I just want to help out.”

He’s doing just that, according to Mandy Hoy, executive director of the local charity that delivers hot meals to area residents.

“We look to our local community for support and we provide our service in the local community and we work hard to get 200 meals a day out to people. We’ve had an 8 percent increase in the number of people who need our service just in this year alone. Cason’s help — everyone’s help — goes a long way,” Hoy said.

“The last few years, he’s donated enough from his Christmas tree sales to feed one resident for a year and that’s a pretty big deal for us,” Hoy said. “He’s just an angel who sort of popped up and said ‘I want to help.’ He’s making a difference.”

Cason hopes sales will be brisk enough to spread a little economic love around.

“We pay for the trees and the help because trees are hard to handle and I can’t handle them anymore,” he said. “Meals on Wheels does a great service and so we try to help them out a little, too. I’ll give 5 percent to the state, 5 percent to Meals on Wheels. I’m hoping to give 3 percent or 5 percent to me, if I’m lucky. It’s not a lot of money, but there’s a lot of memories and it’s still a lot of fun.”