Fresh trees, wreaths create memories, smiles

By MONETTE TAYLOR | South Central Texas Edition

Pipe Creek owner Jim Hingst (left) prepares the tree, selected by the Webb family from San Antonio, for traveling. Family members are Monty, Charline, 5-year-old Bryce and 2-year-old Holly.  -- Staff photo by Carolyn Rost

Dec. 15, 2005 - After months of dry heat in South Central Texas, December has arrived with cooler temperatures and a real feel for Christmas.

Over in the Hill Country, families are flocking to the Pipe Creek Christmas Tree Farm, between San Antonio and Bandera. According to owner, Jim Hingst, the most rewarding part of raising the trees for the Christmas season is watching the families come out and pick out and cut their own trees.

One, recent customer emailed Hingst telling him that “… the glow on my child’s face was the same as if you gave him a new car!” That’s what makes it all worth while to the Hingst family.

As a “side-line” to the Christmas trees, the Hingsts started making fresh wreaths from the branches of the trees. After purchasing the 12-inch wire frames, the small branches are added … one by one … all around the wreath, with the final product measuring about 20 inches, noted Hingst.

Hingst shows some of the finished wreaths. He and wife Berniece make and sell fresh wreaths from their Pipe Creek Farm. -- Staff photo by Carolyn Rost

Small clamps are included on the frames, and are closed with a special machine as the wreath is being made. According to Hingst, a wreath can be completed within about 25 minutes, if there are no interruptions.

Jim’s wife Berniece helps on the weekends, and the two of them usually make around 150 wreaths each season.

�If we made more, we would sell them,� explained Hingst.

Hingst retired from Texaco and a career of traveling all over the world in the late 1980s. While on one assignment overseas, he and Berniece met another family from Texas whose family members owned the Christmas tree farm in Pipe Creek. After hearing all about the operation, the Hingsts decided that might be something they would really enjoy after retirement.

In 1988, they were able to purchase the Pipe Creek Christmas Tree Farm from the family who were no longer operating the farm. Since the property had been abandoned for a while, the Hingsts completely replanted the property in Christmas trees … 6,500 of them! As a tree becomes ready to harvest, a new seedling is planted about eight inches from the trunk of the tree that will be cut in the holiday season.

In 1995, the trees were ready for harvest, and the primary tree grown at the farm is the Afghan (Eldarica) Pine. They also raise Leyland Cypress and Fraser Fir and pride themselves on the fact that their trees and wreaths are always fresh when they leave the farm.

Pipe Creek Christmas Tree Farm is open from 11 a.m. to 5:45 p.m., daily, with student tours from the area coming, yearly. Families can, also, take advantage of hayrides on weekends, weather permitting.

(For more information:  HYPERLINK “http://www.pipecreekchristmastrees.com” www.pipecreekchristmastrees.com or (830)  510-6006).