Mt. Cory, Ohio (WLIO) – The Friday after Thanksgiving is one of the busiest days of the year at Kaleidoscope Farms, a family-owned Christmas tree farm in Mount Cory. They call it "Green Friday."
A visit to the idyllic farm feels like stepping into a Christmas wonderland — rows of bushy green trees, families walking the fields, and kids pointing out the one they want to take home. Part-owner and farm manager Aaron Reese says the farm started as a labor of love for their family over 40 years ago.
"My mom and dad had four boys, and my dad used to be kind of more of a traditional farm with dairy farm back in the day, but he really didn't want to do that kind of farming," Reese said. "He decided, well, what should I do? Let's just start a Christmas tree farm and kind of put them to work. So we planted our first trees in 1984. I was about five years old, and we started there, and it's sort of just blossomed and bloomed ever since then. It's grown exponentially over the years. So we probably started out selling, you know, a couple hundred, 300 trees in a season, and now we're selling, on average, 1,600 to 1,700."
Even though their peak season lasts only a few weeks, keeping the farm running is a year-round effort.
"There’s lots of mowing," Reese said. "It takes about 40 hours to mow the farm from start to finish, but by the time you get finished mowing, a lot of times it's time to start mowing again. Really, it starts in February with grinding stumps from this year's harvest, and it finishes on Dec. 20 this year. I take about a month off, and then we get right back at it. So it's an all-year thing, and it's a lot of hours."
Reese says what really keeps them going is the families who return year after year, making a trip to Kaleidoscope Farms a holiday tradition.
"I think that's really the essence of why we're doing this, is to create traditions for families," he said. "I mean, that's always been the goal. It's not a huge, extravagant money-making business, but we do it to provide not only traditions, but build relationships and connections in our community."
The farm is full-service, so families can pick out their tree and almost not have to lift a finger until it’s home. Staff handle everything — cutting, baling, shaking, drilling, and fastening it to vehicles. Visitors can also enjoy wagon rides, the gift shop, kettle corn, and other fun holiday activities while they’re at the farm.
Kaleidoscope Farms is located at 14841 County Road 54, Mount Cory, Ohio 45881, and the farm’s holiday season runs through Dec. 20.
