Christmas Trees

Each year we spend the Saturday after Thanksgiving in the mountains cutting a live Christmas tree. The trees aren't the beautifully full and rounded farm grown trees you might get from a lot, and they're not as easy to access as the artificial tree in the attic, but they are definitely worth it!  It has become one of our favorite family traditions.

Christmas tree permits are cheap and easy to obtain. We pay only $10 to cut each tree in the Manti-LaSal Forest. You can obtain one of the limited permits (they say limited, but we've never failed to get one) by writing to Sanpete District Office, 540 N. Main Street, Ephraim, UT 84627-1117.  Make sure to write on the envelope: Attention: Christmas Tree Sales.  They'll send you the permit and a map of places that you can legally cut trees. Though it is a bit of drive down to the Sanpete Valley, you can make it in about an hour.  You can check this website for more complete information and for more locations.  Christmas Tree Permits -- National Forest

Our family goes a few miles up Ephraim Canyon (an unpaved road) in trucks, SUVs, and vans to cut trees. Be sure to dress warm as there will be snow even if the valleys are dry. After the trees are cut, we go sledding with the kids, ride ATVs, and have snowball fights.  I have included some of our pictures from this 2010 trip.

The boys next to our freshly cut Christmas tree.

He loves the snow!

Sledding with Dad is always fun.