Green Acre Tree Farm For those who still believe in an old fashioned Christmas, Green Acres Tree Farm in Edgecomb has plenty to choose from for those who want to cut down their own. (Photo Barbara Martin)

Has the hustle and bustle of the holiday frenzy already got you singing the bah-humbug blues? Just stop at Green Acre Tree Farm on Route 27 in Edgecomb, and you'll leave whistling a different tune.

Owner Fred Peaslee has been putting the green into hundreds of families' Christmas since 1948. Back in that day, Peaslee would traipse all over Maine cutting wild trees to sell to those less fortunate Americans who don't hail from the Pine Tree state.

"We'd sell a bundle of trees that had about six to ten trees in it for $1.25," Peaslee said. "We went all over the state to plantations, which is what we called areas where trees were ready to harvest, and brought back bundles of trees for wholesale. An individual tree might sell for about ten cents."

In 1980, Peaslee, a man with a plan, purchased 18 acres in Edgecomb to develop his own tree farm for retail sales. The farm is now home to 30,000 trees, featuring almost every variety of evergreen available for our shopping pleasure.

When Peaslee made the jump to owning his own tree farm, he also started the process of shaping trees, known in the business as shearing.

Peaslee's daughter and son-in-law, Cindy and Dennis Hill both work at the farm as does their daughter, Samantha, her boyfriend and his mother, Peaslee's brother-in-law, and sundry other Peaslee friends and relatives. The Hills also run a bait shop on site that is open all year.

However, next to Mr. Peaslee, one of the most important roles on the farm is filled by the Hill's 11-month-old golden/chocolate lab, Remington, who reports daily to serve as the farm's mascot. It's a tough job, but someone has to do it, and since that wildly popular reindeer named Rudolph is pretty busy this time of year, Remy does all he can to fill those hooves, by dressing in his best Santa outfit and offering wet kisses to any and all takers.

"I live for this time of year," Cindy Hill says. "We start preparing in the spring. It took me a few years to learn how to shear the trees. I'm doing better, but I don't have the eye my dad has."

Buying a tree at a local stand may be fun, but if an old-fashioned Christmas is what you want, nothing trumps cutting your own tree.

The first stop at Green Acre Tree Farm is at the office, where you can pick up a measuring stick to gauge the height and a saw to cut your tree. You can also place a tag on the tree you choose for future harvesting.

Tree hunters can also tag the tree they cut, and staff will come down on four wheelers to haul it back to the office. But Peaslee said that every year there are several purists who want to sling that tannebaum over their shoulder and bring it out of the woods all on their own, usually with several little children in tow.

You can get just about any height you'd like from a table top treasure to the tallest tree the farm ever sold, which will be cut next year at the grand height of 30 feet.

The staff describes where to find what on the farm and then your search for the perfect tree begins. And by the way, all family members are welcome… the farm is pet friendly.

Peaslee, who is fast approaching his 82 nd birthday, doesn't appear to have any interest in resting on his laurels by the fire, even though his wife would like it. As he looked out over his rolling acres, he thought about some of his favorite tree selling memories.

"I had a couple come in once who brought their dog along. When they came back with a choice, they told me the dog picked the tree," Peaslee said. At first, he thought that the dog must have gone over to one tree and started barking, but he soon figured out the dog had "tagged" the tree in a more customary canine fashion.

Peaslee also looks forward to a visit from a faithful customer in Bath who has bought his tree every year at the farm since it opened.

"He always buys one of the biggest trees we have," Peaslee said. His daughter Cindy said that he sets up a train set under the tree in his home.

Cindy directs the elves who work in Remy's workshop putting wreaths and roping together. "We sell wreaths that range from eight inches to 48 inches in diameter," she said. "And we recycle everything. We mulch up any unused bark, trunks and brush. Nothing is wasted."

In addition to enjoying what he does, Peaslee clearly believes in bringing freshly cut trees into our homes for holiday trimming, rather than succumbing to the ease of buying a plastic wanna-be tree for yearly use.

"I use to bring schoolchildren in for field trips. I'd cut a branch off a tree and hold a blow torch up to the needles," Peaslee said. "It would take about 15 seconds for the branch to light. When you hold the torch to a plastic tree, it lights immediately and the smoke is thick and heavy."

Now let's see, a visit to Green Acre Tree Farm may offer a safer holiday, along with a chance to revisit a much loved American tradition that will occupy the kids outside a mall and re-acquaint the family with fresh air and Maine's quiet beauty. Okay, Mr. Grinch… even for a mean one like you, what's not to like?