BY MACLEOD PAPPIDAS
The Daily World
For the Hockett family, Christmas is a half-month extended visit with family that culminates on December 25.
Franklin "Doug" Hockett, his wife, Lois, and their sons, Kirk and Doug, own Hockett Family Christmas Trees, a 17-acre farm off Highway 12 between Montesano and Central Park. The trees are maintained throughout the year by the men in the family, but when harvest time comes, everyone, including friends, kids, co-workers and extended family pitches in.
"We're not able to do this except for the combined effort of the four core owners," said Lois Hockett. "I mean it takes a tremendous effort on all of our parts and a lot of time. And we each have different roles, which makes it work. One person alone or two people couldn't do it."
Today is the last day of a two-weekend push in which families from Grays Harbor and beyond drive to the farm, choose their tree, and either cut it down themselves or have one of the crew cut it for them. Last weekend, a steady stream of cars rolled through with Sunday being the busiest day. People will continue to buy trees, of course, but the huge rush will be over tomorrow.
And while the Hockett tree farm is a successful business, it's not a huge moneymaker and wouldn't be viable as primary income for anyone in the family. In a way, the land the trees are growing on is the real investment, and the trees themselves are more of a hobby, an excuse to spend satisfying days working hard, reconnecting with old friends and customers, being together as a family and generally being awash in the Christmas spirit, the family says.
"This is the whole reason we do this," said Doug Hockett, 43, as customers began to pull into the parking lot last Saturday. "I mean we work on those hot days in August and September out here sweating on a ladder working on the leaders ... I think that makes it even better watching the business grow because we're so hands on."
Each tree's new growth, or leader, needs to be trained to make sure the finished product is straight. The trees need to be fertilized and treated for pests. They need to be trimmed into the classic Christmas tree shape.
The Hocketts don't hire crews to come in and do all the tree maintenance for them. " We wouldn't have that personal attachment to it. Plus, it's the holiday season. No one comes here grouchy and in a bad mood," said Doug Hockett.
HISTORY
Franklin Hockett, known as F. Doug, is the son of loggers and grew up in a logging camp in Central Oregon. Breaking somewhat from tradition, he earned a college degree, graduating from Oregon State University with a bachelor's in forestry.
After working briefly for a couple of timber companies, he got a job as the Washington forester for Anderson & Middleton and settled with his wife in Montesano, where he bought a 10-acre piece of property and built a home for his growing family. He set his sights on planting a Christmas tree farm, and by the mid-1970s he had his first crop growing.
F. Doug and Lois have three children: Doreen, 45, Doug, 43, and Kirk, 41. From an early age, the kids helped with the farm, and only Doreen decided not to follow in her father's footsteps. Both Kirk and Doug have degrees in forestry and now work at Anderson & Middleton where their father retired after working for the company for 35 years.
Over the years, the Hocketts learned the business of Christmas trees, both on the ground and in the spreadsheets. The first crop they planted was harvested and sold wholesale to a company that supplied dealers. With their second crop they sold some wholesale and the rest "choose and cut," directly to the consumer. Encouraged by that venture, they successfully devoted their third crop entirely to choose and cut.
The business grew along with the boys. Together, they decided to make an investment.
"In the early '90s Weyerhaeuser was selling this property," F. Doug said. "We saw an opportunity to start a bigger tree farm, so we bought it and cleared it and planted trees."
"Doug and I, from about 16 on, we worked summers and Christmas breaks and made money and we threw a lot if it into the property," said Kirk. "A lot of people would ask us what we were clearing this land for. We'd say a Christmas tree farm and they'd say, 'really?'"
"Everybody said it was going to be a Walmart," added F. Doug.
THE GATHERING
Last weekend, Doreen Campbell sat with her mother in the "pay shack," as the sun started to melt the frost off the noble, silver, grand and Douglas firs. The first trickle of what would eventually be a flood of customers began to drive up with their trees in the beds of their pick-up trucks or lashed with twine to the roofs of their cars.
Campbell admits that she doesn't share her brothers' love of the woods. She lives in Snohomish with her husband and two children and is a senior manager in Boeing's 747 program. Still, every year she takes these two December weekends to sit in the shack with Lois and contribute her part to the whole operation.
"It's fun to be here," she said. " I get to be with my family and see the same people year after year. I still feel connected even though I left in '85 to go to college."
For her part, Lois makes food for the whole crew and acts as a lookout for customers as they approach the shack. She helps identify the trees for pricing and hands out candy canes to the kids. Dogs get a biscuit.
Outside, Kirk and Doug, their co-workers Lonny and Juan, Doug's father-in-law Jim, and Lonny's sons Eric and Brian were ready for the rush. The ATVs were gassed up, twine was plentiful and chainsaws were sharpened and fueled. As the day progressed, Doug's wife Michelle would show up to help and his daughter Christa, a 21-year-old medical student living in Seattle, would also come down to help.
F. Doug, 69, doesn't pack a saw or haul trees much anymore. But he still helps people load their rigs and, together with Michelle, helps guide customers through the process of choosing a tree. He clearly loves it.
"It's rewarding when there's a family and there are little kids. The kids are just beaming looking at the tree and they know now that when they come to the pay shack they get a candy cane," he said.
For the family, the hard work at the farm is literally their vacation. They work together throughout the day and swap stories over dinner in the evening.
Kirk, for example, feels lucky that he gets to take time off from his day job each year to help make the tree farm happen. It just means that he hasn't taken what most people call a vacation for a long time.
For the Hocketts, cold mornings, sawdust, warm treats, chatting with friends and customers and working together as a family is their version of "home for the holidays" and not one of them would have it any other way. The only downside might be that December 25 can be kind of anticlimactic.
"Somebody asked us what we do on Christmas day," Lois said, laughing. "Everybody just scatters. We've been with each other for a month!"
MacLeod Pappidas, a Daily World photographer and writer, can be reached at 537-3934, or by email: mpappidas [at] thedailyworld [dot] com.
The Hocketts pride themselves on having a system that's easy for customers to understand. The trees are color-coded with ribbons indicating their size. This information, combined with the species of tree, indicates the cost. F. Doug says that way, the customer isn't surprised by the price of a tree when it's measured at the "pay shack."
There are many other Christmas tree farms in and around Grays Harbor. Here are just a few:
Brady Tree Farm, 79 Middle Satsop Road, Montesano, (360) 249-2000
Hedlund Christmas Trees, Brady, www.hedlundtrees.com, (360) 482-3987
Rustemeyer Christmas Tree Farm, 17 Rustemeyer Road, Aberdeen, (503) 329-5325
Bob Channell's Farm, 203 Sprague Ave, Westport (360) 590-2790.