VENETA, Ore. — Sharon Carroll and Chantal Wright love being a part of the Christmas season celebrations of thousands of families and businesses.

Their business, Carroll’s Country Christmas Trees, is in its 44th year of providing Christmas trees to visitors to its farm.

“It’s rewarding,” Carroll said. “I guess the best part is when somebody comes back the next year and drops me a note, saying their tree was the best they’d ever had. That makes me happy.”

“I just love the experience here,” said Wright, Carroll’s daughter, of seeing families selecting a Christmas tree. “I love providing that experience for families, seeing how happy everybody is, seeing friends and families together as they pick a tree. That’s the joy I get.”

These Christmas experiences and memories first began to take place back in 1979 after Carroll’s family purchased 80 acres near Veneta. Christmas trees were growing on 15 of those acres.

“We were a logging family so we knew about trees,” Carroll said. “This was a chance to take on a new opportunity. We did have to learn about growing Christmas trees, spraying and fertilizing and trimming them.”

The farm grew to 100 acres of growing Christmas trees on three different sites, all in the Veneta area.

There are 70,000 to 80,000 trees, ranging in age from 1 to 20 years old, in the ground on those 100 acres. The varieties are Douglas fir, noble fir, Nordmann fir and grand fir.

“The Nordmann fir is the favorite tree of most customers,” Carroll said. “People with allergies should get a Nordmann because it is the least fragrant.

“The Nordmann fir and the noble fir last longer, through the New Year,” she added.

While the mother and daughter manage the farm, they get plenty of seasonal help from other members of the family. Carroll’s son and daughter-in-law, Nathan and Jeni Stapleton, and their business, Stapleton Timber and Excavation, and her daughter and son-in-law, Stacy and Chet Kokkeler, and their business, Scapes Unlimited, work when needed.

Other local businesses that work with the trees are Skeet Hise Tree Management and Alexander Maggio, a tree planter and harvester.

The harvest season for the farm begins in early November, when trees are cut and shipped in a refrigerated container to the Hawaiian island of Oahu. Carroll lived in Hawaii for a few years in the late 1980s. She developed Christmas tree sales there as a fundraiser for a church school.

The sales expanded to the islands of Hawaii, Maui and Oahu for several years, but now trees are sold only at the Oahu school site.

For many years, the business also shipped trees by the truckloads to California and Arizona, and shipped trees to other parts of the U.S.

But those deliveries were gradually decreased and by 2005, the farm had narrowed its sales market to just its home farm lot and the Oahu site.

Visitors can walk through the Carroll’s Country Christmas Trees field at 26260 Perkins Road, Veneta, to select and cut their own tree. U-cut trees must be 6-foot or taller. The U-cut trees are usually available for only the first two weeks of the harvest season.

Pre-cut trees of assorted heights are also available.

“Seeing the families come out is so much fun,” Carroll said. “The connections, the relationships we’ve made over the years, that’s the bonus. We share the tradition with them. They’re happy so we’re happy.”