Tree farmer has a passion for the season and trees

In Virginia Beach, VA, tree farmer Jim Bright has found a fulfilling career helping to make the holidays merry for others. The farmer was working for the Virginia Department of Forestry and growing seasonal produce nearly three decades ago when he began to wonder, why not Christmas trees, too? Bright went to local classes to learn the basics and planted a couple hundred white pines.

Then he waited. Growing Christmas trees is a labor of love, Bright said. It takes about seven years to grow a good-size tree, he said.

The first full week of December hadn't even come to an end and Bright's Farm already was sold out. About 200 Christmas trees, including some that had been growing for almost a decade, had been whisked away in just three days.