ROCKINGHAM — Lindsey Steadman, owner of Lindsey’s Discount Tire on Biltmore Drive in Rockingham, traveled up to Asheville one weekend about 30 years ago for some “junk shopping” and came across a man who was selling Christmas trees. Taking a chance, he decided to buy 20 of them to sell and he was shocked by how quickly he ran out, so he kept coming back.

“We kept doing it over and over and built us up a pretty good business with it, there’s a lot of work involved, a lot of employees involved, a lot of long hours,” Steadman said. “We just kept on doing it and now it’s like a family tradition.”

At first they bought trees from wherever they could find them but later got connected to a better quality supplier in Asheville who grows them all in North Carolina. These days, Steadman brings in two tractor trailers full of Frazier furs and has generations of customers who come each year, some from as far as Georgia, to buy his trees.

“It takes a lot of people to grow trees and trim them and prune them and spray them a couple times a year so it keeps the people in our state working,” he said.

Once the trees come in the weekend before Thanksgiving, the shop’s staff, which includes Steadman’s sons, Dylan and Blaise, work every day from about 9 a.m. until people stop shopping, which can last until about 11:30 p.m. Thanksgiving Day, Steadman said, is like the “Super Bowl” for Christmas tree shopping, and so it’s become a part of their celebration.

The Steadman boys and the rest of the staff make their dinner in the morning, set up tables in the shop and eat their dinner together as they wait for the rush.

“You can judge your whole season by that one day,” he said. “We look forward to it, it gets a little hectic sometimes but we stick it out. We stay here usually until 9 or 10 … as long as people are coming in we stay with it.”

On those long winter days supplying Richmond County and the surrounding areas with the centerpiece to their holiday season, the staff at the shop starts up a fire in a barrel to keep them warm in between trimming and other maintenance to the trees — “there’s not too many moments where we’re not doing something.” They make frequent runs to McDonald’s, but what they look forward to is his wife, Sandra’s, cooking and food brought by loyal customers.

One couple brings homemade deer stew each year.

“It’s a good thing, anybody can stop by and hang out and enjoy themselves,” Steadman said.

Steadman is known to have a hobby or two, not only tires and cars, but also collecting store signs from days gone by using his trained, hound dog-like sense for digging up history. Curating and selling a Christmas tree lot has become a hobby just like his others.

“We still do it as a hobby but we enjoy doing it, it’s just like any other hobby: once you start you just keep on,” Steadman said. “During the last couple weeks of November and in December the Christmas trees has priority over our tire shop.”

So what kind of trees does a Christmas tree salesman take home for their Christmas morning?

“For the tree we take home we go pick through a tree that might have a bad side or a broken limb — we don’t premium pick ‘em,” he said.

There are a couple of features of Steadman’s Christmas services that separate them from from the larger stores that sell. One is that they trim the trees to fit the customer’s tree stand, a practice they started because Steadman recognized that while he had the tools to cut his himself, not everyone else did.

Steadman and company also provide custom wreaths. With 5 different machines, they are able to make wreaths of a 10 inch diameter up to 8 feet on request. Though you may not expect it from looking at him, Steadman is very particular about the wreaths he allows to be sold at his shop. He has a strict standard: it’s all about how you fit the branches together.

“If the same person makes 10 you can tell whether a different person made one,” he said. “If it doesn’t meet my specs we make a new one.”

Most people “don’t understand what it takes” to make a good wreath — “It’s a talent,” Steadman said.

“It’s not a haircut,” he said of how some people try to cheat, lopping of limbs to make the wreath a circle. “You have to fit the limbs in there just right.”

After about 30 years of these marathon holiday seasons, Steadman said they have no plans to stop.

Reach Gavin Stone at 910-817-2673 or [email protected].

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Gavin Stone

The Daily Journal