LOOKING BACK

Young Chang

Almost everything has changed in the Noonan’s Christmas Tree business.

From the old-fashioned Douglas, white firs, silver tops and Bolsa

pines of the 1940s and ‘50s, the business has moved to selling noble

firs, “Plantation Dougs” and “Normans” -- the tree Doug Noonan calls the

tree of the future.

Their Santa Claus, Stanley Tudor, used to stand in front of the lot

every year and greet children. But Tudor was stricken with cancer last

year, and Noonan has had little luck finding a Santa quite as amiable. So

the Noonan lot this year is Santa-less.

The founder and father of the business, Harry Noonan, is also absent.

Having suffered two heart attacks in recent years, the 81-year-old rests at home in Nevada because doctors advised he stay put.

The business has even moved locations three times since it first

serviced locals with trees in 1944.

But one defining factor in the Noonan family business, the oldest tree

lot in Costa Mesa, hasn’t changed: It’s still a family business.

Today, Doug Noonan, his brother Harry Noonan Jr. and other relatives

run the lot.

“It’s a family tradition, and I love the people that we cater to,”

Doug Noonan said. “Dad has a lot of old-time friends.”

Harry Noonan Sr. opened the business on Newport Boulevard near 17th

Street 56 years ago. He had just gotten out of the military and needed

something to do.

“That’s when a dime was worth a dime,” he said from Nevada.

He sold trees grown in Oregon and Washington, which included the

old-fashioned Douglas and other trees popular in the ‘40s. Three years

later, he moved to a different spot on the wide boulevard -- where he

stayed for almost 20 years, until the Calvary Church of Newport-Mesa

started construction on its new sanctuary and school.

Last year, the business moved to its current spot at the intersection

of Harbor Boulevard and Victoria Street.

Doug Noonan, while selling trees this week at that spot, said it’s

questionable whether they’ll continue to do business there because “there

are no vacant lots anymore.”

But the 50-year-old son, his brother and Harry Noonan Sr.’s three

grandsons aren’t worried about location changes causing declines in

sales. Changes in weather matter most when it comes to selling trees,

Doug Noonan said.

In the ‘70s, the skies poured so much rain and wind that trees didn’t

grow as effectively. The Noonans found fewer trees to sell. Weather

similarly affected tree-growth last year, but business was affected

mostly because department stores also hoarded the few trees that were

available.

“Christmas is too commercialized now,” Doug Noonan said.

Ask him what defines Christmas, and he’ll point to the trees behind

him.

“It’s my Christmas,” he said. “Christmas is Christmas trees.”

Harry Noonan, who plans to make it down to the city later this winter,

added that loyal customers make the tradition run deeper.

“The old, old people that started me out many years ago come back year

after year,” he said.

* Do you know of a person, place or event that deserves a historical

Look Back? Let us know. Contact Young Chang by fax at (949) 646-4170;

e-mail at [email protected]; or mail her at c/o Daily Pilot, 330 W.

Bay St., Costa Mesa, CA 92627.