UNION TOWNSHIP -- A Christmas tree farm in Schuylkill County is preparing for the Christmas season.
The countdown is on. The Christmas season is on the way. Ringtown Valley Christmas tree farm has been around for more than 80 years.
"A lot of the same people and their children and their grandchildren have come back over the years," tree farm owner Joan Lex said.
The owners, John and Joan Lex are preparing for a busy season. They have about 8,000 trees on their farm near Ringtown.
"It gets crazy," John Lex said. "After Thanksgiving, it gets very busy."
Lex said this was a good year for his trees because the weather helped them grow more than they would normally.
"This year, as you know, was very wet early in the year," John Lex said. "That gave the trees a real opportunity to grow. They probably grew about a foot and a half this year, which is not usually normal in this area. Normally, it takes about eight years to get a seven-foot tree."
While some families choose to buy trees from hardware stores or get synthetic ones, the Lexs say they still sell hundreds of trees each season.
"It makes a family have a tradition every year so that they can do something together," Joan Lex said.
The Lexs will start cutting trees down the day after Thanksgiving and will be selling them all way up until December 23.