Renick Tree farm worker Mickey Chapman pulls a freshly cut tree out of a customer's van to be wrapped Friday at Renick's Tree Farm in West Sunbury. Tree farm owners in Butler County say the continued mild weather has contributed to a season of brisk sales.

Thanks to mild temperatures in November and early December, many Christmas tree farms in Butler County say they’re doing a brisk business this holiday season.

“It’s been a nice year — a very good year. And a lot of that is weather-related,” said Jack Grupp, the owner of Harmony-based Grupp’s Christmas Trees. “It’s been a good year to get outside and tromp around and get your tree.”

For Christmas tree shoppers it’s not just weather; time is an important factor too, Grupp said. By this weekend — with just two weeks left until Christmas — Grupp’s farm has already seen the seasonal surge of shoppers searching for that perfect fir or spruce.

“By this time of year, people that are going to get Christmas trees have either already gotten them, or know when and where they’re going to get them,” he said.

At Pine Hill Farms in Harmony, owner Don Dambaugh said this year was slightly unusual because of how early people began visiting the business in search of trees. Dambaugh said business usually doesn’t hum in earnest until after Thanksgiving.

This year, though, Pine Hill, which offers hay rides and cutting service to pick-your-own-tree customers, saw the Christmas rush materialize early. Dambaugh said last weekend was the farm’s busiest so far this season, with demand for some Christmas tree varieties so high that he’s had to begin thinking about managing stock over the long-term.

“It’s been a good year so far; lots of sales,” Dambaugh said. “I’m running out of my fancy Frasier firs. I may have to cut back,” or (risk impacting next year’s supply.

Tom Goldscheitter, the owner of Goldscheitter Christmas Tree Farm in Sarver, said the uptick in business is marked for him, and he’s noticed more urgency in shoppers as well; these days people want their trees earlier in the season.

“It seems like in everything everybody is getting their trees earlier than they have in past years,” Goldscheitter said. “For years I didn’t even open the Friday after Thanksgiving, but now I am because I’ve had so many calls.”

Goldscheitter said he also believes Christmas tree shoppers are approaching the activity differently these days.

“I’ve seen a lot (more) new, young customers with young kids this year than I have in previous years,” he said. “I think they’re looking for an experience. Maybe it’s a case where, when they were kids their parents took them out to get a tree. And they grew up, haven’t (done this) for years, and now want their kids to experience it too.”

An uptick in the popularity of cut-your-own tree farms would follow a national trend, according to the National Christmas Tree Association, which tracks tree sales annually. By a wide margin Americans prefer a real Christmas tree to an artificial one, according to industry data provided by the Association.

Of the more than 37 million trees sold last year, 26 million were real, and more than ever before (32 percent) were purchased from a “choose-and-harvest” farm. The next most-popular place for Americans to get their holiday tree last year was at one of the big chain stores, the association said. In total, the industry generated more than $2 billion in retail sales last year.

Popularity comes with its own costs, though. And a surge in popularity for a particular variety of Christmas tree can create long-term concerns for farmers, who say they have to carefully manage their stock to cater to a wide variety of tastes and needs. There’s simply no way to predict shoppers’ preference when it comes to tree buying.

“It’s all in the eyes of the beholder,” said Roland Tokarski, the owner of Ski Christmas Tree Farm in Sarver. He said it’s easier to pinpoint the most popular size — at Ski Farm that’s trees between 6 and 7 feet tall — than one particular variety.

Size isn’t necessarily a given either, farmers say. People’s homes often dictate what they’re looking for when it comes to a Christmas tree. And just like personal preferences, those things can vary widely — something to which Grupp attributes the popularity of cut-your-own-tree services.

“We have people that have 20- and 30-foot ceilings, and people with more conventional homes,” said Grupp.

He said his farm doesn’t bother trying to track Christmas tree sales from year to year, but does all it can to try and anticipate shifts in popularity between tree varieties.

For the most part, farmers said, people come looking for a fir tree — whether the iconic Frasier fir or a lesser-known cousin like the Kinane fir, which Grupp said was “definitely our most popular trees.” Others, like Tokarski, say they still prefer varieties like the blue spruce. The nation’s top-selling and most-planted holiday tree is the Scotch pine, according to the Association.

For Christmas tree farmers like Grupp, however, it’s not about the numbers.

“When I look at it ... I look at it from a people perspective,” Grupp said. “Everybody’s home is different. There’s no one-size-fits-all, and that’s the nice thing about the choose and cut. People can just roam around until they find that perfect tree, in their eyes.”