With Thanksgiving behind us, families are flocking to Whispering Pines Christmas Tree Farm in Milton to kick off the Christmas festivities.
Out with one holiday, in with the next.
Late Friday morning — less than 12 hours after the official end of Thanksgiving — families had already flocked to a Milton farm in search of Christmas trees.
"It's our family tradition that we set up and decorate the day after Thanksgiving," said Pace resident Heather Mason. "I try not to start too early."
Mason roamed around the wide open spaces of Whispering Pines Christmas Tree Farm for about 30 minutes with her husband, Tim, and their sons, Tristan and Caden, in search of their first live Christmas tree.
After spotting a tree that met their criteria of being being 6 to 7 feet tall, 9-year-old Caden went to work with a handsaw to bring down the family's find. Soon, Tristan, 16, joined his brother on the ground to give the effort a little more muscle.
The Mason men loaded the tree onto their truck and drove it to the entrance of Whispering Pines, where the tree was shaken down, measured and wrapped up so the family could be on their way.
Whispering Pines volunteers put the newly cut trees on the base of a ground-level electric machine, called a shaker, to rid the tree of loose branches, needles and critters that might have found a home.
After a dozen years of having artificial trees, Tim Mason suggested to his wife that the family go for a real tree this year. He said he was feeling nostalgic.
"I grew up with real Christmas trees," he said. "We're going to try it. It's the smell. You can smell them when you walk inside and it reminds me of growing up."
Tradition also pulled Cantonment residents Jonathan and Miranda McGallagher and their family to Whispering Pines. The McGallaghers, accompanied Friday by their children and in-laws, have been coming to Whispering Pines for more than a dozen years.
"It brings the real Christmas," said 12-year-old Reagan McGallagher.
Searching as a family for a live Christmas tree is part of Miranda McGallagher's family history, and on Friday they were joined by Miranda's sister, her husband and their 15-month-old daughter.
"We were brought up picking up a Christmas tree as a family," Miranda McGallagher said. "Walking around and looking and enjoying the trees and everyone deciding. This is my one day of the year, the day after Thanksgiving, is when all the Christmas stuff goes up."