LITTLE ROCK — A dainty, carefully pruned tree wouldn't cut it for Lea Crabb.
So he trekked out to the far end of the Homestead Christmas Tree Farm in Saline County, past the rows of the classic conical-shaped Virginia Pines and Leyland Cypresses to find a more "natural" yule tree.
A bushy, 22-foot Eastern Red Cedar would be grand enough to display the mounds of ornaments he and his wife, Anne,have collected over the years.
"It's all about memories," said Crabb, of Glen Rose, who was one of the scores of Arkansans who kicked off the Christmas season Friday with a trip to a tree farm.
At least 15 tree farms in the state have opened this weekend. Growers offered hacksaws and hot chocolate to those who braved the drizzle and nip in the air Friday.
This was Crabb's 13th year at the Homestead farm, 12 milesnorth of Benton. It was also his last, as it's closing after 26 years.
The owners, Pat and Charles Sanders, are retiring.
"We have a lot of good memories," Charles Sanders said. But at 63, his body is "rejecting the tools it takes" to keep up the farm.
"I'll miss it a whole lot," Sanders said as 14-year-old Brady Willis of Benton chopped down his family's 8-footer.
As some Christmas traditions were ending, others were beginning.
Newell and Christy Page and their two children scoped out trees at Motley's Tree Farm in southern Pulaski County on their first trip to a tree farm.
The Pages, who live in East End, always get a real tree after Thanksgiving and spend the day stringing lights and hanging ornaments.
"But we usually go to Lowe's," said Christy Page, as her daughter, Brooke, 2, ran in circles around the evergreens.
Motley's is one of the state's more elaborate farms with a petting zoo, pig races, hayrides and a decor shop.
"It's all about the entertainment," Randy Motley said before letting six pigs loose around a small racetrack he added to the farm this year.
"Come on, Rudolph," he said to a red-nosed pink pig.
Jim and Betsy Aronson of Little Rock started their tree hunt at Motley's, then headed down the winding country road leading to the Homestead farm.
Betsy Aronson said the tree farms offered a little taste of her childhood. Growing up, she and her family would ride horses through the wilderness of Madison County, looking for a tree to take home.
"The Home Depot wasn't doing it for us," she said, fresh garland draped in her arms.
Tree growers are hoping more people like the Aronsons skip the big box stores and precut-tree lots this year and instead take part in the state's agricultural-tourism opportunities.
Terry Christy, head of the Arkansas Tree Growers Association, said with many Arkansans out of jobs and the rising cost of fertilizer causing some growers to raise prices, it could be a tough season.
But he noted that this year's wet weather made for some lush, full trees.
"They filled out really well," Christy said about the trees at his Hilltop Christmas Tree Farm in Dardanelle.
Plus, he said, a fresh-cut tree will last through Christmas if watered properly.
"You can put a Leyland Cypress up at Thanksgiving and you can hang Valentines on it," he said.
Still, many farms let customers tag trees now and pick them up closer to Christmas.
That was Patty and Charlie McCumpsey's plan. For 10 years, they have gone to Motley's and tagged a tree to return for later.
They browsed the rows of 5- to 6-foot Leyland Cypresses, an evergreen with lacy, fernlike foliage instead of needles.
When she was growing up, Patty McCumpsey's family always displayed a fake tree.
"Once I got out on my own, I was like, nope," she said. "I love the real."
Arkansas, Pages 11, 13 on 11/29/2008