With just over 100 sleeps to go until the big day, Christmas might feel like a long-time off, but for the couples behind Trees4Life and Wonderland Christmas Trees, they are already thinking about little else.
Anyone desirous of having a real Christmas tree in their home or business this Christmas is likely to be sourcing their tree from one of these two companies, who have cornered the market in bringing real Christmas trees to Cayman.
Real fir trees
Between them, the two companies expect to bring around 1,500 trees from Canada to the Cayman Islands for Christmas, a logistical challenge involving transport, customs and hopefully the green light from the Department of Agriculture. Despite the challenges, the importers say it just wouldn’t be Christmas without the real thing.
“For me, it’s about nostalgia,” said Blake Rogers, who runs Wonderland Christmas Trees with his wife Jaime Doak-Rogers. “The smell of the Christmas tree in your house is the smell of Christmas itself. And when we open up one of those refrigerated containers, which are packed with Christmas trees for the first time, that waft of Christmas tree smell is just phenomenal.”
As well as the smell, says Jeff McGlashan, who runs Trees4Life with his wife Kelly McGlashan, the shape of the tree is crucial.
“It’s got to be your classic triangular shape with strong, full branches and no gaps,” he said. “We’re not talking about Charlie Brown’s Christmas tree here.”
Canadian fir trees
Both couples were involved with Trees4Life, which was founded over a decade ago, before they went their separate ways and the Blake Rogers set up Wonderland Christmas Trees. The healthy rivalry between the two means that the business of Christmas trees in Cayman is taken very seriously.
Both companies source Christmas wreaths and premium Canadian balsam fir trees, known for their sturdiness and longevity, from Quebec. Their inventories differ in the size of trees offered, with Trees4Life going from table-top sized trees to 8- to 9-foot trees, while Wonderland Christmas Trees is selling trees from to 4 to 5 feet up to 11 to 12 feet in height.
Bringing the trees back from Canada is a logistical challenge in itself. Wonderland Christmas Trees has a specific area of its supplier’s Christmas tree farm set aside for them. Meanwhile, the McGlashans are flying to Canada to hand-select trees from their supplier to bring back to the Cayman Islands.
This year, Trees4Life has partnered with supermarket chain Hurley’s to provide trees for their customers and is expecting to sell around a thousand trees in all.
“We’ve always thought about doing a partnership but never got round to it,” said Jeff McGlashan, “but we started talking about how we could align the logistics to be able to get everything here and it all meshed perfectly well. With a lot more buying power, we can pass savings back onto the customer as well.”
“We get to do Christmas together,” said Deidre Redfern from Hurley’s marketing department.
Whoever people buy with, both companies recommended pre-ordering trees ahead of shipping, with no guarantee that there will be any left to pick up after specific orders have been filled.
Charitable efforts
Both companies have a charitable focus as well, which has been there from the start, thanks to Jeff and Blake’s flying backgrounds. Trees4Life was originally created as a way of raising money towards a flight scholarship set up by the family of Zak Quappe, a local commercial pilot and flight instructor who died in 2013.
Trees4Life is donating $5 from every tree purchase to the Clifton Hunter High School Aviation Club to help inspire the next generation of pilots, while Wonderland Christmas Trees has pledged to match all donations made during purchase to help Cayman Islands Meals on Wheels distribute meals over the Christmas period.
Festive pick up
Once containers have made it through customs and have been passed by the Department of Agriculture, people will be able to collect their trees directly from Hurley’s or Regatta Office Park or can opt for home delivery.
Blake Rogers is particularly excited about making the pick-up as festive an experience as possible.
“We wanted to create a really festive experience when you pick up the tree, so we’ve had everything from Christmas carollers to hot chocolate, a snow machine and, of course, Santa.” he said. “It’s a great family atmosphere.”
Christmas trees should last throughout the festive season, and afterwards trees are turned into mulch, which is then offered free for residents to put on their gardens.
“Nothing comes in here without an environmental footprint, unfortunately,” Redfern said. “But we can put it back into the ground once it’s done. It’s not like a plastic container, so at least we can control what happens on the island.”
Both companies say they will be taking orders until around mid-November and the trees and wreathes will be on island by the end of November.
