Property Tales
Everyone has their own taste in trees. Once, I sold a tree that was cut in half lenghtwise, from top to bottom, when the delivery truck went under a bridge. I thought nobody would buy it. But someone thought it was perfect-because it could stand right next to the wall.
Christmas-tree vendor
During the weeks before Christmas, NYC sidewalks are ruled by commerce. Along major thoroughfares from Battery Park to Inwood, Christmas-crazed consumers rush from vendor to vendor to stock up on stocking stuffers and other stuff.
Among the largest items-in size and price-on the block are Christmas trees. Hundreds-no, thousands of them. You can't miss them. They're all over the place.
"New York City has a very old law saying you don't need a permit to sell Christmas trees on the street during December, as long as you have the permission of the business you're selling in front of," explains Todd Snyder, who for the past 10 years or so has manned a big Christmas-tree stand located on Broadway between West 79th and 80th Streets, in front of First Baptist Church and H&H Bagels.
"We have their permission," says Snyder. "I think we give the church some big trees for their decorations and maybe some money, and I'm pretty sure we have a standing contract with the bagel store. But those deals are made by Kevin Hammer, who owns this stand and-well, I'm not sure of exactly how many-but I'd say he has at least 80 more stands all over the city. I just sell trees, and sometimes deliver them to buyers."
The stand's set up several days after Thanksgiving; it's torn down on Christmas Eve. Snyder figures he sells roughly 1000 trees during that period. Prices range from about $40 to $120, depending upon the size, shape and fullness of the tree. He also sells wreaths.
"We sell three kinds of trees. Fraziers are the most expensive because their needles hold better, but they don't smell as nice as the Douglas firs and Balsams," says Snyder. "Most of our trees are from Nova Scotia. They're hauled down from Canada on huge flatbed trucks. We get deliveries at night, several times a week. Sometimes we have so many trees-well, it can be a problem if the sidewalk gets congested."
Stacked 10 deep against racks built at curbside, the pines await selection by someone who'll decorate and adore them for their brief window of seasonal service. Cumulatively, their scent is so sweet that pedestrians don't seem bothered by having to elbow their way along the sliver of sidewalk accessible between trees and building facades.
"People are in a good mood." says Snyder. "It's fun to sell trees to them. And, for some, the trees we sell them are just about as close as they ever get to nature. So, I feel I'm doing [a] good thing."
The money ain't bad, either. Snyder, who works during the year as an itinerant laborer-picking blueberries in Maine or planting trees in Virginia-won't reveal what he earns from his annual December-in-New York job, but the buzz among neighborhood street vendors is that Christmas-tree sellers make about $5000 for the month.
"We're paid at the end of the season-like a Christmas bonus," says Snyder. "The amount varies yearly-depending on sales and, I guess, on expenses. You know, the price of gas, and whether the dollar is strong when Kevin buys trees in Canada."
While in New York, Todd rents a room at Hayden House, a hotel on West 79th Street, close to his stand. He says many of the other vendors are Canadian or European. Everyone arranges their own housing-some rent apartments, others stay in vans.
Do pedestrians ever express dismay that so many trees are chopped down to celebrate Christ's birth?
"No, I never heard that," says Todd. "These trees are farmed for Christmas. In nature, trees don't grow this perfectly."
Last Christmas Eve, Todd had 80 unsold trees, which he left in the street to be picked up by garbage collectors. Of course, come January, that's where all the trees that were sold are dumped, too.