For two weekends, the Parks Legado Christmas Tree Market will transform a corner of Ector County into a holiday wonderland.
Set for Saturday and Sunday and Nov. 26-28, the market will be located at the Parks Legado Town Center, 7260 State Highway 191.
Hours are 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Friday; 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday; 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday; 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Nov. 26; 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Nov. 27; and 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. Nov. 28.
Saturday events include vendor markets from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.
The Christmas tree market started in 2018 and benefits the Permian High School Band.
Marketing Coordinator Elise Hutson said there will be a vendor market on Saturday and Nov. 27 where people can purchase clothes and holiday treats.
Santa also will be there and offering free photos with him. There will be music, Thomas the Train rides, Christmas carolers, free hot chocolate and more.
Fraser fir Christmas trees will be for sale, along with wreaths, garland and poinsettias.
Something new this year is a 40-foot Christmas tree behind the plaza by the hotels. There’s a circle that people can view.
Huston said all the proceeds will go to the Permian High School Band.
The band boosters work the market, Director of Bands Jeff Whitaker said.
Marketing Coordinator Andrew Marshall said the band bought a refrigerated trailer for the trees, garland and poinsettias.
He added that the trees do better if they are kept cool.
“They come from northern Wisconsin. … When we started, we had to do a lot of research about the best kinds of trees to have down here because we just weren’t familiar. There aren’t very many people that sell fresh cut trees, so fir trees, noble fir and Fraser fir do the best down here because they have short needles and thick branches, as opposed to a pine tree that’s the opposite. With these fir trees, all the farmers we talked to said that you have to keep them moist and wet. Otherwise in our climate down here, if we just leave them sitting outside they dry out. So in the past when they were on the patio, Permian went out there literally every day and hosed them down with cold water and we had to shade in the whole thing to keep them cold and wet. And then that keeps it from drying out. … When someone buys a tree, they do a fresh cut of about an inch off the bottom of the stump. … As long as you put it in water that day, the tree will still soak up water. It won’t grow, obviously, but it’ll keep it alive through the holidays,” Marshall said.
If people want to keep the trees fresh, they have to keep watering them.
“One of the cool things that Permian did is they bought Christmas tree preservative. It’s something that everybody that buys a tree they give it to them complimentary and you mix it in with the water. The trees soak it up. What most people find is that the tree will soak up a lot of water the first two or three days because it’s been cut for a week at least. So it’ll soak up a whole bunch and then throughout the holiday season it doesn’t soak up as much. But Elise and the band have worked together to find things to make it easier for people. They built a general store out there and they sell all these accessories, if you will. They have a water funnel that goes halfway up the tree, so you don’t have to bend down to fill it up,” Marshall said.
There also is a thick, absorbent mat underneath, so if anything spills out when you’re decorating it or you have pets, it doesn’t go on the floor.
“They’ve added a lot of things for people based on the feedback we’ve (gotten),” Marshall said.
Hutson said they are expecting close to 300 trees and there are eight to nine foot trees and 10 to 11 foot trees.
“Then they have several hundred wreaths and garland, too. This is the first year they’ve added poinsettias. … We have a lot of people that want to participate and support the band, but they don’t want a tree because they like the artificial one they have. … So they found all these ways for people to come out and support (the band), even if they don’t want or need a Christmas tree,” Marshall said.
He added that they reached out early to find a poinsettia grower.
“Otherwise, I don’t know if we’d be able to get them either. It seems like there’s shortages everywhere. But they’ve been growing specifically for sale at the market the last year,” he added.
When they started in 2018, they had to call a little over 370 farms just to find fir trees for sale, because there is a global shortage.
“And so there’s shortages of trees for Christmas trees and then the shortage for … the type of tree we need in West Texas … is even worse. And so we had to call a whole bunch and then every year we’ve been fortunate enough to work with the same farm, so that they’re coming from the same place this year that they did the last three or four years. But it does get harder every year and they’re more expensive. Only slightly every year. We’ve been lucky in that our farmer that we work with in Wisconsin hasn’t gone way up on his rates for us because it’s Permian. It’s a nonprofit. He’s worked with us a little more than other people have. So to give you a reference point, the next closest wholesaler that we got an option for this year, their wholesale price is what we’re charging in retail.”
“The guy that we’re working with is really doing us a favor because it’s just the next closest Fraser fir trees that we saw were about $100 to $140 a tree, which is what you buy them for at Parks Legado. So there’s no money to be made without the band having to double their prices, so we’re lucky in that we found a farmer. It’s a family farm with a guy in Wisconsin that has really treated us well,” Marshall said.
Being a Permian graduate, Hutson said she feels this is a really good opportunity for the band.
“I wish that when I was in high school that there was something, like with organizations I was involved in (that) we had something like this. It’s become really successful. It’s more than just a school fundraiser. They’ve really reached out to the community,” Hutson said.
Hutson and Marshall said people are starting to look forward to the market every year.
“I found that it’s become easier and easier to market it every year, because the Permian band does a really good job of making it a magical experience for people, so people look forward to it in the same way that they do our farmer’s markets. They just know it’s a thing; they’re ready for it to happen. So all we have to do is tell people that it’s happening and people show up, which has been really cool,” he said.
The PHS Jazz Band and musicians from the band will play Christmas music. The majorettes will also perform, Director of Bands Jeff Whitaker said.
“One of the cool things, too, is that they have been open to working with other schools and nonprofits that want to be involved,” Marshall said.
Midland High School has a show choir that dresses up in Dickensian style Christmas caroling outfits. They are going to sing carols on Saturday nights.
“Permian has been really open to making it not all about them. And then something I might add, if I could, is that one of the things that I think is really cool about it is seeing that the community has really grown it to a level that makes a pretty good financial impact for the boosters, for all the work that they put in. Because when we started it, the Sewell family had the idea. But from the very beginning, we had said that we want to involve a nonprofit, one because we needed help. It’s a lot of work to work those two weekends; it’s a lot of labor. So we needed help, but we didn’t want to capitalize on Christmas, either. … We didn’t want to start it to make money off of it. We wanted to start it for it to be for the community and we thought the most symbolic way to do that would be to say we’re going to give all the money back to the nonprofit that staffs it. I reached out to seven or eight, maybe 10 organizations and the Permian Band was the only one that I could beg to take a chance on (it) …,” Marshall said.
“For me, it’s been really rewarding to see that it’s grown for them …,” he added.
At this point, they’re looking at how to grow the venture further by adding more nonprofits and schools.
Marshall said they had leftover trees last year and decided to take some to nursing homes and nonprofits.
“What’s been even more rewarding, I think, is to watch this nonprofit figure out how they’re going to give back to all the other ones. … That had a bigger impact than we had anticipated,” Marshall said.
He added that there are other incidents of paying it forward that have come out of the Christmas Tree Market.
Hutson said there are at least 30 volunteers involved. Marshall added that hundreds of hours throughout the year also are logged.
He noted that they started talking about the Christmas market for this year right after last year’s.
“So literally this December, we’re going to have to start calling for Christmas trees for next year. So as soon as we finish one event we have to start on the next one,” Marshall said.
