Cummings Christmas Trees: selling trees and giving memories

MILLCREEK, Utah —Every family has their Christmas traditions. For some, it’s caroling, baking, and playing games with family. For others, it’s picking out a fresh Christmas tree. Cummings Christmas Trees has been helping families with that last tradition for decades.

Over the past 70 years, Cummings Christmas Trees has sold trees to generations of families in the Salt Lake Valley.

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Operating Manager Brad Brackett said he’s worked at Cummings for 34 years. In that time he has sold trees to at least three different generations of families. “We do it for the people that come and see us every year,” said Brackett.

For Brackett and the late Founder Hugh Cummings, selling the trees is about so much more than money.

“I have hundreds of family members I see for a couple of hours every year at Christmas time. You know they walk in, they know our names, they’ve been buying from us for years. I’ve literally watched people’s kids grow up on this lot,” said Brackett.

In a normal year, Brackett said Cummings sells between 2,400 and 2,600 trees. All are hand-selected from farms in Oregon.

This year the timing of Thanksgiving made things a little tricky.

“This year again was a little odd. We only got 2,400 trees because [of] how late Thanksgiving fell. But we were sold out by the 17th of December,” said Brackett.

The season of giving

In the spirit of Christmas and keeping tradition alive many Christmas tree sellers even give trees away for free, hoping to make the season brighter for those who couldn’t afford one.

If they ever have a year where they don’t sell out, Brackett said they’ll donate them to local organizations, give them to the homeless or help younger families out.

“This stuff is expensive, especially for young families,” said Brackett. “We’ll give them a break and try to help them out and make sure they get what they need for their house.”

Whatever they can do to make sure everyone gets a tree.

Cummings Christmas Trees is planning on being back next year with more hand-selected Christmas trees.

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