O Christmas trees, how sporadic are your lots

Newport Beach resident Nick Cattaneo is always antsy around Thanksgiving because he knows that means Christmas is right around the corner.

But not only because he enjoys the holidays, but also because he loves working at his seasonal job. For the past 14 years, Cattaneo has worked at Jamboree Trees, an independently owned and operated Christmas tree lot that pops up in Newport Beach every year.

“I bought my first Christmas tree as a married man here,” Cattaneo said.

But a drive around Newport-Mesa shows that seasonal Christmas tree lots, which employ many others like Cattaneo for a short time, are thinning out.

The reasons mimic those that are given to explain the demise of many small businesses in the face of large corporations offering bulk prices and large stores — it’s tough to compete with the likes of Home Depot and Target.

But some sure do have history.

Jamboree Trees was started over 50 years ago in the Bay Area, and 2006 marks more than 16 years in Newport Beach.

Richard Bredice of Mission Viejo has operated the lot every season for the last four years.

“We’re one of the last holdouts against the big box stores,” Bredice said, sitting in the a small motor home on the Back Bay Drive lot.

“The big stores get hundreds of thousands of trees…. We’re just trying to slug it out with the big boys, all the independents are.”

The other issue for the lack of tree lots is the open space available in Newport-Mesa.

Doug Noonan’s father Harry Noonan started Noonan’s Trees in 1944, and Doug Noonan has been working with his dad in the Christmas tree industry his whole life. For the last four years, the Noonans did not make it to Costa Mesa, despite having had a lot “in Costa Mesa before it was Costa Mesa.”

“There’s no vacant land. People are forced to go to the department stores,” Doug Noonan said, standing in his Harbor Boulevard lot.

“There’s just no land, and trying to find something, when you do, everybody wants high rent.”

Doug Noonan said that many in the business have headed inland, where land is more plentiful and space is less expensive to rent.

For myriad reasons, including trucking costs, Christmas trees cost more each year. But something Doug Noonan and Bredice echoed the fact that the big stores shipping so many trees affects what they must charge to make any money.

Large chain stores buy in bulk and can afford to pay higher trucking costs.

Noonan’s Trees and Jamboree Trees buy from Oregon farms, and the farms are hand-selected by both companies’ owners. But the selection process during the year and the selling process once the holiday season hits is what keeps the businesses going.

“It’s in your blood,” Doug Noonan said. “I wouldn’t know what Christmas was if it weren’t for the lot…. If you’re in it, once you don’t do it, I don’t know what happens — you’d probably go nuts.”

What the small operations can’t do in volume, they said they make up for in quality. Both lots boast several kinds of trees in varying sizes.

“Where we’ve found our niche is in the premium trees,” Bredice said. “Our trees are grown by award-winning growers.”

But the lots do have trees that are competitively priced against the Home Depots and Targets of the area.

A tree at Jamboree Trees can run anywhere from $20 to about $170. At Noonan’s they run all the way up to more than $300. At Home Depot, the trees start at about $22 and can top out over $100.

“They are not really tree people; they’re businessmen,” Bredice said. “Our boss [Ken Orsow of Oregon], he’s into it — this is a big part of his life.”

The small lots are also able to offer personalized services like home delivery, which some bigger stores do not.

Corona del Mar resident Fred Salter came to the Newport Dunes lot Saturday morning to pick up a last-minute tree before his daughter came home for Christmas. His family had purchased trees from the company before and had been happy.

“We came here probably because of the close proximity — it’s just in the community,” Salter said.

Salter said he remembered holidays when his family would go around from lot to lot to find the perfect tree. They can’t do that now because of the lack of lots, but they were happy with their noble fir nonetheless.

“These are very fresh; I’m very impressed,” he said.

They also operate like extended holiday families. The guys, and one woman, who gathered to work at Jamboree Trees on Saturday morning said they do it because it’s fun and they love the people they work with. Bredice said he’s had lawyers, real estate agents and Marines who’ve just returned from tours of duty.

“It’s a nice escape from what you do all year long,” Bredice said.

Chase Presson, 22, recently returned from Kuwait where he was serving in the 1st Battalion, 4th Marines. He was recently discharged from service and got a job working for Bredice.

On Saturday morning, he helped carry, make fresh cuts and mount trees on people’s cars, all with a smile and courteous small talk.

“It’s awesome working here,” he said.

Although they have fun and send everyone off with a jolly “Merry Christmas,” the companies admit that they are selling fewer trees than they once did. Bredice said this year they expect to sell from 2,000 to 3,000 trees. In years past, they sold 7,000, although this year has been better than last, Bredice said.

Jamboree Trees Inc. is on Back Bay Drive at Newport Dunes. Noonan’s Trees is on Harbor Boulevard at Bay Street.