The holiday season is quickly approaching.
Feeling merry and bright? Do yourself a favor and head to Kohl’s Stony Hill Tree Farm in Milton, where holiday magic comes alive!
Feeling grinchy? Do yourself a favor and head to Kohl’s Stony Hill Tree Farm in Milton, where spirits are lifted just by walking inside!
Noticing a trend? Kohl’s truly is one of the region’s premier holiday destinations to get you singing “Fa la la la la la la la la”.
Christmas Trees (and Wreaths and Garland): Your Way!
A gem in the middle of nowhere (bonus: you’ll love the scenic drive there), Kohl’s has been celebrating all-things-Christmas since November 1986, when Stan Kohl purchased the tree farm that was home to 5,000 Christmas trees.
At that time, Kohl’s sold trees at his grandfather’s lot on Route 147 in Northumberland, but he closed it in recent years to give his grandfather a rest. Stan said his grandfather was so dedicated that he would sell trees to people driving by in the middle of the night if they honked their horn – Stan wanted him to finally have some peace and quiet.
Fast forward to today and the farm boasts 30,000 Christmas trees of all varieties: Frasier Fir (a customer fave), Douglas Fir, Concolor Fir, Norway Spruce, and Blue Spruce. At Kohl’s visitors get to choose: pre-cut or pick and cut your own, saws included.
B
eautifully-decorated wreaths are also made on-site and fresh white pine garland is available.
The wreaths are another part of the business that has evolved. At first, they were made in Stan’s basement in his home (1988-1995) but he moved the operation into a garage in 1995. In 2002, it expanded again to its own dedicated building. A team of a dozen skilled craftsmen make the wreaths by hand using a special machine – they are then decorated by hand and sold at the Shop and also donated to the Wreaths for Warriors project locally.
Ornaments Galore
Kohl’s also has more than 100,000 ornaments to choose from, including Old World Christmas, all beautifully organized by theme and interest, plus stockings, nutcrackers, tree skirts, string lights, garland, yard signs, holiday home décor, and so much more.
If you can think of the ornament type, Kohl’s probably has it: from Disney characters to sports teams to hobbies to name ornaments and everything in between…there’s even a “teen life” section complete with ornaments that would make pre-teens and teens LOL.
Guinness World Record
We would be remiss if we didn’t mention that Kohl’s is a Guinness record holder for something unique: the most Christmas tree stands in the world!
When Stan started collecting Christmas tree stands in 2004, he didn’t have intentions of winning a Guinness World Record, but after several attempts, he finally attained the award in the summer of 2018.
His massive collection started after his Great Aunt passed away and his family was combing through the items in her home in nearby Northumberland.
“My cousin found four or five tree stands from the 1950s, red and green tin stands. There was nothing fancy about them,” Kohl recalled.
He took them home and hung them on a log in the barn and “kind of forgot about them” for a while. He said at that time, EBay was brand new, but he eventually started looking online for other tree stands.
He bought a few and soon became “obsessed with getting them,” hanging them on the walls in the Christmas Shop, since they had plenty of extra wall space at that time.
His initial intention for hanging them on the walls was to amuse male shoppers who accompanied their wives to the Shop, “He thought, ‘Men are mechanical, they’ll appreciate the tree stands.’ They won’t be dragging their wives out of the store to stop them from shopping. The wives could shop while the stands entertained the husbands.”
He said in hindsight, it amused everyone who visited – men, women and kids alike.
After building an addition on to the Christmas Shop, a customer said to him, “You should try to get a world record for having all these Christmas tree stands.”
So, he attempted it in 2016 when he had about 900, but Guinness told him that they wouldn’t consider his request until he had more than 1,000 stands.
He kept buying more and more and in 2017, he applied again. They informed him he would need to send pics and descriptions of the stands to be considered – quite a monumental task for such an extensive collection.
Kohl started the laborious task of documenting each tree stand and asked six employees to assist in their “down time” in the Shop. They added Post It notes to each one with a number to track them (some are still there to this day!). They finished the process and submitted the documentation, which was followed by months and months of silence from Guinness.
Finally in September of 2018, they received word that they did in fact earn a record in July of that year.
“We started promoting it and WNEP-TV came down and did a story; that story was picked up by the AP,” he recalled. He said he heard from people as far away as Idaho who heard about his tree farm and Christmas shop.
He believes they currently have upwards of 1,200 Christmas tree stands in the collection.
Some of the stands are from the United States, but many are from other countries like Germany, Austria, Australia, and China to name a few.
He thinks they are all unique in their own right, but has a few favorites: some of the cast iron animals such as bunnies and frogs, a log cabin, and a pair of Santa’s boots. He said the oldest one in his collection has a patent date in the 1890s.
“I really like the cast iron stands where they had to make molds and put more effort into them. The tin stands were often jus stamped out by the thousands,” Kohl said.
For more information about Kohl’s Stony Hill Tree Farm and its many festive offerings, plus seasonal hours, find them on Facebook or visit https://kohlsstonyhill.com/
