I know lots of people prefer fake Christmas trees. More convenient, they say, no dropping needles, no over- or under-estimating the size of the tree versus the space in your living room. I don’t care. I want the look, the scent, the nostalgia of a real tree.

Nova Scotia harvests two million Christmas trees a year and, for many families, the perfect start to the holiday season is a trip to the tree U-pick. Steve Bezanson, owner/operator of Bezanson Family Christmas Tree Farm and one of Nova Scotia’s 2,500 Christmas-tree growers, says: “It’s a family outing. With so many people living in urban centres, they’ve lost contact with the woods. This is a chance to show the kids there’s a big outdoors.” Plus, he adds, it’s just plain fun to choose your own, growing tree.

Of course, in the wild stands where 99% of Nova Scotia’s trees grow, it can be hard to picture the actual size of that big balsam fir.

“The sky’s a really high ceiling,” Bezanson says. His advice: Always figure a tree is 0.6 m (two ft) taller than it looks.

There’s one Nova Scotia Christmas tree, though, where the sky really is the limit. That’s the giant evergreen that Nova Scotia donates to the people of Boston, MA, to thank them for their help after the giant 1917 Halifax Explosion. Each year Nova Scotia’s tree-growers vie for the honour of providing the 12- to 15-m (40- to 50-ft) tree that graces Boston Common throughout the holidays.
novascotia.com