The fairy lights are already flickering in the shop windows of Freising’s old town, the first Christmas markets are offering their mulled wine and the eleven-metre-high Christmas tree on Marienplatz has been shining since this week. On Monday, Minister of Forestry Michaela Kaniber and Minister of State Florian Hermann officially opened the Bavarian Christmas tree season in Mauer with a hand hacksaw. If there is a Christmas tree, then it should be from the region, without long transport routes and freshly cut.
The fir tree on Marienplatz also comes from the district, for 25 years it grew on the Fischer Christmas tree farm in Attenkirchen. Operator Sepp Fischer has already felled the first Nordmann firs, blue spruces and pines suitable for the living room, because the first big rush is expected to come on his eight-hectare plantation on the first weekend in Advent. On the second weekend in Advent, Freising residents can also cut their own Christmas tree on Sepp Fischer’s farm.
The farm provides the tools for felling
The court provides the tools for this. “If something doesn’t work out, one of us will come and cut the tree.” In autumn, when the leaves of the deciduous trees were still almost all hanging on their branches, families came to the plantation and marked the tree that they wanted to have in their living room in December. “They stay until the fourth Sunday in Advent and then we cut them fresh for Christmas.”
Opening of the Bavarian Christmas tree season in Mauer with Michael Kaniber and Florian Herrmann.
(Photo: Matthias Balk/dpa)
As a result of the pandemic, he has sold more Christmas trees in the past two years because people have been spending their Christmas days at home, says Fischer. He believes that he is selling a similar number of trees this year, but that the trend is towards smaller trees. “The fir tree is then no longer 2.5 meters high,” he says, “but it only costs 35 euros instead of 50 euros.” Now the summer was hot and the soil was dry, you can see that in some young fir trees by the color of their needles. Nevertheless, there is no shortage of Christmas trees and Fischer has not increased the prices either, “under the current circumstances that could not be marketed at all.”
In principle, Christmas trees serve almost the same purpose as cut flowers
In principle, Christmas trees fulfill almost the same purpose as cut flowers, they leave their aromatic smell in the living room, with a bit of luck the visitors will admire the choice and after two weeks they will have had their day. But cut flowers don’t grow up to ten years to be decorated briefly and then thrown away. Christian Morgenstern once said: “I didn’t pick a few flowers for you today to give you their life.” Should the Christmas trees stay in the woods?
No, says Alfred Fuchs, who manages the forestry operations of the Bavarian State Forests in Freising. Forest owners would have to make room for their trees anyway. To do this, they have to cut down individual trees from the stand. “This is necessary for the forest offspring.” Two-thirds of the forests in the district are privately owned, says Fuchs, but how the foresters handle the private sale of trees varies. Because the Christmas trees from forests are not actively watered and fertilized, their ecological balance is far better than that of the plantations.
Christmas tree plantations are arable crops and have a similar effect on nature as the cultivation of arable crops. Thanks to the nutrient management and CO2 storage of a Christmas tree that grows for up to ten years, it is a resource-saving Christmas tree instead of planting crops, says Alfred Fuchs. “Nevertheless, we mustn’t delude ourselves. Christmas trees are consumer goods that are only produced for them,” says the forest manager. Breeding them on plantations requires water, fertilizer and a lot of space. Buying trees from the region is therefore all the more important. There are enough firs in the district. This would support regional sellers and avoid unnecessary transport routes.
According to the Federal Statistical Office, most of the imported Christmas trees in 2020 came from Denmark, 91 percent of the 2.1 million fir trees were delivered from the neighboring country. Unlike regional Christmas trees, imported trees are felled at the beginning of October and placed in cold stores to keep them fresh until they are loaded onto trucks and driven around 1,000 kilometers to Freising. “That’s out of all proportion,” says Fuchs.
“We know where our product comes from”
Rita Hörl from Altenerding, on the other hand, defends herself against the bad image of Danish fir imports. As a small, part-time family business, she and her husband have been selling mainly Nordmann firs for many decades. These would be the most sought after by customers and are in fact from Denmark. “We have a long-standing relationship with our producer and know where our product comes from,” says Hörl. The environmental regulations in Denmark are in no way inferior to those in Germany, and the working conditions and wage level also meet at least equivalent standards. Of course, it takes a truck ride from the Danish Baltic Sea coast to Altenerding, where she sells her trees: “However, I sometimes lack the proportionality.” She has also never heard anything about cold stores in her entire time: “I can only speak for us. But that would be absolutely uneconomical.”
According to the Bavarian State Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Forestry, Bavarian Christmas trees are marked with a gold-red banderole on which “Bavarian Christmas tree” is written. Trees with the “Certified Quality Bavaria” seal will also be offered again, with the Bavarian origin being state-tested.