Thompson reminisces about Christmases spent with her family as she and her father, Richard Bartell, wander through their 170-acre farm outside of Georgetown, Ga. Their stroll across the property gives a whole new meaning to the Christmas carol “Walking in a Winter Wonderland.” Thompson’s only regret is that there is no snow to cover her farm’s 5,000 Christmas trees.
From majestic 8-foot “blue ice” trees to tiny 2-foot “Charlie Brown” Christmas trees, visitors to the 12-acre “Lazy-Days” Christmas tree farm have a hard time deciding on which tree to call theirs. They have plenty to choose from: Leland cypress, “jolly green”, “blue sapphire”, Carolina sapphire, and the ever popular “blue ice” to name a few. But there is one thing all visitors can agree on- Thompson has the best-smelling property on the Georgia side of the Chattahoochee River.
Originally from Michigan, Thompson, her father and her husband, Gary, moved to Georgetown nine years ago. Five years ago, they began planting Christmas trees. Each year, the family planted 1,000 trees. Bartell keeps the aisles between the tree rows tidy while a team from Michigan comes down every year to help “trim” the trees. Lazy-Days offers several types of Christmas trees, but the “blue ice”, said Thompson, is the most popular kind.
The trees are stately and trim with a white frosting on the tips of their needles- and they smell heavenly. “These will smell up your whole house,” she added as she brushed her fingertips along the tree’s prickly leaves. She said that upkeep of the blue ice trees is easy and they do not shed badly when placed in water. The Leland cypress trees are also popular-not so much as Christmas trees as ornamental plants in landscaping.