BOONVILLE — Starr Pines Christmas Tree opened a week earlier than usual this year due to high customer demands.
The owner of the tree farm, Wayne Harmon, said the farm opened at customers' requests.
"This is the first time we've opened before Thanksgiving; typically, we open Thanksgiving Day," Harmon said. "People have been calling us early on in November asking if we would be open early. 'Could I come cut a tree before Thanksgiving?' they said, so we made the decision to open up early this year."
People travel from across the state to get their Christmas tree at the Boonville farm.
"It was a long drive, but probably worth it," said Micah Thompson, a farm visitor from Fulton.
"It was really worth it," said his brother Josiah Thompson, also a farm visitor from Fulton.
A majority of the customers are from the Columbia area, but regulars also come from the Lake of the Ozarks, Springfield and Kansas City.
"We've had people that were cross-country, saw our billboard on the interstate, got a tree and headed off to Denver with the tree," Harmon said. "You never know who is going to show up."
Visitors and customers also range from families, students and older adults.
"There's a number of students I've seen; as they were leaving they went to grab a tree and take it home," Harmon said. "Families that have got their young kids with them and want to come to the farm and have the real Christmas tree experience."
They get the opportunity to walk across the tree farm, pick a tree and cut it down themselves.
"It was the biggest and the best one that I picked out," Micah Thompson said about their family Christmas tree they bought at the farm.
Starr Pines Christmas Tree Farm currently has between 35,000 and 40,000 Christmas trees on the property. It has a range of different varieties, such as pines and firs, and various sizes, from small trees to bigger trees up to 10 feet tall.
The farm usually welcomes between 2,000 and 3,000 visitors and customers per opening season. And every year, it plants over 5,000 trees which, on average, take seven to eight years to grow to maturity.
The farm will be open until Christmas Eve from 9 a.m. until dark every day, and it is part of the Christmas Tree Association.
