Christmas is on the calendar all year round at priory estate near York

Following a record-breaking festive season selling all 20,000 of the trees it brought to market last year, preparations for Christmas 2022 are now in full swing at Newburgh Priory Estate, near York.

Newburgh Priory diversified parts of the estate for the growing of Christmas trees, shortly after Stephen Wombwell and his family, took ownership of the estate from his retiring father in 2010.

In the next couple of weeks they will be taking out of the ground some 10,000 potted trees ready to be distributed to various nurseries and garden centres and after that, usually around mid November, a whopping 26,000 trees will be taken out for the cut market and some will be sold at special Christmas events planned to take place at the estate.

All the 20,000 trees that were harvested last year sold and that has given the estate confidence to cut even more this year as the trend for a traditional Christmas tree seems to have returned in the wake of the pandemic.

Mr Wombwell said: “In the wake of the Pandemic, we were absolutely delighted last year to have encountered record-breaking sales, selling our entire stock of British grown Christmas trees.

"This has given us the confidence to harvest more than ever before - with 26,000 trees currently being readied for sale, through both the wholesale and retail market.

“2022 has been an unsettling year for many so far, with the cost-of-living crisis, the death of Queen Elizabeth II, the lingering effects of Covid and the continuing fall-out from Brexit.

“However, we believe, that nearly everyone wants to continue to make memories and celebrate at Christmas as best they can – and at the heart of that festive family time is a real Christmas tree.

“Anecdotal evidence supports this readiness from families, to continue to want to celebrate despite the circumstances.”

Planting starts around March/April time, usually the Nordmann Fir variety, and at any one time there are around 380,000 in the ground on a part of the estate grounds that had previously been arable.

In this part of the country it can take around eight years for one to grow to six foot which is classed as industry standard. Down south it can be faster, up in Scotland, for example, it can take longer as temperature and climate affect growing conditions.

The few months after planting can be a worrying time as Mr Wombwell admits that time is spent “trying to keep them alive when it doesn’t rain”.

The growing of the trees has attracted an abundance of wildlife and animals to the estate as the thick covering of the forest provides a safe haven for many species from ladybirds and insects to birds and hares as well as predator birds such as sparrowhawks and buzzards who hover above.

The Christmas tree venture is run with Mr Wombwell’s childhood friend William Standeven, a fencing contractor who was looking for something to do over winter and they admit they have been surprised by the success.

He added: “The demand has always been there. The problem has been we have imported from Europe and pre-Covid we were importing 1.14m trees. It is a crazy figure when we can grow them perfectly well ourselves.

"Problems with importing have helped dry that up and people are looking for British grown trees. There are still too many imported trees but people are much more aware of where everything comes from, we saw it with food, but people want their tree to be locally and sustainable sourced and not have come on a boat from overseas.”