Stokoe Farms Christmas Trees

When Charlie and I lived in New Jersey, we had a tradition of cutting down our own Christmas tree. There was something satisfying about the combination of a truly fresh tree and buying local. When we moved to Rochester, a neighbor pointed us to Stokoe Farms, about a 30-minute drive south. We expected something similar to the farm we frequented in Jersey – a small, family run affair that just sold trees. So we were amazed to find not just acres (3500 acres!) of any kind of tree you might want, but incredible activities for the kids. We made sure to go with Charlie’s nephew and his family, so we could pretend to be kids again ourselves.

Naturally, 4-year-old Fiona was a bit over-stimulated, and couldn’t decide between the hay ride (really just the vehicle for getting people to the trees and back) and the giant slide. So Charlie’s nephew and I took the two girls on the slide while Charlie and the girls’ mom waited in the ride line. We just went down the regular slide – I was too skittish to do the enclosed twisty one – I might get stuck! Naturally, the kind of tree Charlie wanted – Concolor – was the farthest away, and we always have to do a fair amount of looking and judging before settling on just the right one, but we finally found a lovely, not-too-tall-for-the-room specimen (unlike the year we misjudged and had to do some ceiling repainting in January…). I’m not sure how sturdy this tree will be for hanging ornaments, but the needles are very soft (as opposed to Blue Spruce, with its sturdy branches and prickly needles).

The girls had a great time on Charlie’s “sleigh ride” among the trees, and when we returned to the main buildings, they were mesmerized by the Hillbilly Henhouse, with its puppet chickens singing funny versions of Christmas carols. 

There were a few small animals wandering around looking for petting and photo ops, and an enormous rabbit in a cage with some chickens. Towards the end, I had to bribe Fiona with bits of freshly made doughnuts to sit still for some photos, and then it was time to load our tree onto our car, where our dog was waiting patiently, and get it home before the kids’ melt-down, I mean nap time. I really hope Yair and his family decide to settle down in the area, because going to Stokoe wouldn’t be nearly as much fun without them!