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♪exciting orchestral music ♪
[man VO] Every place has their own unique Christmas
experience,
but there's no place like New York.
♪
[woman VO] You're in a different world.
You're in Tree World.
[man VO] I'm in my bed and I roll over.
I find pine needles in my bed.
[woman VO] One block in New York is more people than there are in
Vermont.
[man VO] It's an exchange of energy.
We have the Rockefeller Christmas tree.
We have the Rockettes.
Nobody can compete with Fifth Avenue's store windows.
There's music everywhere.
I love the vibrancy of the city.
I like the noise.
I like the chaos.
I love when it's Christmas in New York in a movie.
Ahh!
[man] Go back to Jersey, ya moron! [laughs]
Christmas doesn't start really in the city until the Christmas
tree people get here.
[woman VO] New York is probably the hardest place to sell
Christmas trees.
And people don't realize a lot of the stands going up are owned
by this small group.
[Greg VO] My name is Gregory Walsh.
[Heather VO] Heather Neville.
[George S VO] George Smith.
[Ciree VO] I'm Ciree Nash.
I'm Jane Waterman.
[George N VO] And I'm George Nash.
[George S VO] And we're the five families of Christmas.
♪upbeat Christmas music ♪
[Greg VO] It's a very scary business.
It's over a half a million dollars to break even.
And you're squishing a year of work into a month.
[Ciree VO] The stakes are...
pretty fucking high!
That don't concern me at all.
When I play, I play to win.
I mean, we're all frenemies.
[chuckles]
I think we should all work together.
I don't know.
Now that's a tree!
[George S VO] Everybody in the tree business,
to a certain degree, they're all for themselves.
It's the tree season relationship.
It's pretty difficult for anybody to compete with me.
I think that we have the best selection of trees.
I'm second to nobody.
[laughs]
[George S VO] From your mouth to God's ears,
I'm praying it'll be a good year.
I hope that I make it out with my shirt this year.
Ho, ho, ho!
Merry Christmas!
♪heartwarming Christmas music ♪
- [groans] - How's my hair look?
Where's makeup?
♪
[Jane] Okay.
[chuckles]
[Heather] Why don't I just move the chair over a little bit?
[crew] No, no, no!
Oh, no? Forget it, all right, all right!
Everyone calm down! [chuckles]
♪
Usually I eat milk and cookies,
but I'll have a little water today.
♪
♪tender acoustic music ♪
[Greg VO] Every Christmas tree sold in America
is grown on a farm.
They've been grown from seedlings.
Those little tiny guys gotta grow up,
and then they get transferred to another little pot,
then another little pot.
By time they actually get in the ground,
they're about that tall
and they're about three years old already.
Every year after that, it's about a foot.
And they trim 'em once a year.
They put sticks in them to make 'em grow straighter.
They gotta cut 'em, they gotta bale 'em.
And they gotta ship 'em to me.
My name is Gregory Walsh and I operate Greg's Trees,
and we've been doing it for 38 years.
If you do this as a lifestyle, and you're doing trees,
then most likely, you should also do something else.
You know, 'cause you're not gonna make it just on trees.
♪tender upbeat music ♪
We've got lilies!
Look at those lilies!
Wouldn't you love to get those lilies on Valentine's Day?
Welcome to Greg's Roses!
It's also Greg's Trees, but right now, it's Greg's Roses.
Ho-- no, no.
Come on in! Come on in, my loves!
Little Greg wants to be on T--
Wait, where'd he go?
He was there for a minute ago.
Did he just... disappear?
That's Little Greg.
[Greg VO] I was always a very motivated young man to
make money.
I was working in a candy store when I was seven years old.
Then I wanted to work in the pizzeria and I was only 12.
And started this business when I was 21 years old,
selling trees.
♪upbeat bluesy music ♪
I also have six pumpkin stands.
Woo!
Has anybody ever seen a more beautiful pumpkin stand?
And then we do Mother's Day.
To have a bouquet this late on Mother's Day,
this beautiful...
Greg, did you call your mother?
- No... - Greg, call her right now.
Can we call her on film?
Call your mother right now.
Father and son.
Ho, ho, ho!
I never got him to smile like that once in my life!
Sometimes I paid him 50 dollars to smile,
like in front of the Eiffel Tower.
I'm like, "It's Eiffel Tower, Greg!
I'll give you 50 dollars!
Gimme a smile!"
[Little Greg] You just don't like accept my other smiles.
[Greg VO] I have one son, his name is Greg also.
He's called Little Greg, even though he is six foot five.
I'm Big Greg, and I'm shrinking, but he wants to call me,
uh...
Old Greg, but I'm not-- I'm not gonna do that.
[Little Greg] Ah, why?!
Uh, I'm 20.
I've been involved probably 20 years.
[chuckles]
I've been at the stand since I was a kid,
either just going with my dad or just helping out on the
weekends.
I don't really know who gets into the tree business without
[chuckling] family or anything else.
[Greg VO] He's always been mimicking me as the little boss
-- that was his name for many years.
And he's eventually gonna take over the business.
[director] Do you think Little Greg is ready to
run the business?
Um, I mean, I wasn't ready until I was about 45,
so, uh, I gotta say...
I think he's-- I don't think he knows what's about to happen.
[Greg] Ooh!
Look, Christmas trees.
[Greg VO] Growing up in New York,
we were the hustlers back in the day.
Now, we're seasoned peddlers, right?
50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50...
- 25! - [man] 25, 25...
I was either 10 or 12 years old when I met some tree guys.
[Greg VO] This kid walks by every day,
like school hours.
So I finally, one day, I said, "What are you doing?"
And he told me that he was-- he's a hustler too.
- [phone chirping] - One second, hold on.
I'm just selling some jewelry right now.
A businessman always works.
[Greg] I found you on the street!
- I found you on the street! - And who helped you?
I picked you up-- physically picked you up-- and put you in
- business. - [George S] No, that's not true!
He worked for me the first couple of years.
We almost killed each other.
888 wins again!
I told Greg, "You know I'm better than you."
I said, "Take my name 'George,' for instance.
I have every one of your letters in my name and more!
Why would they settle for less when they can have the best?"
He don't have the money you think he has.
How do you know?
I know people who know people with old issues!
[George S VO] I own several different businesses.
[George S] At George's Pumpkin World...
we're better than Greg.
[George S VO] But I also do Valentine's Day,
Mother's Day, Easter, and carnivals.
Christmas is my favorite of all holidays.
I won the number-one Christmas tree locations in Manhattan.
It's NYC Tree Shops.
Everybody watches.
I don't know why.
Whatever I do, they watch.
My competitors all watch me.
'Cause I look for the trend to see what's new and what's hot
and how to do it.
[George S VO] I was born and raised in Brooklyn.
I grew up poor on welfare.
Nobody gave you anything in life.
If you wanted something in life, you had to go out and get it.
And you had to work hard for it, whatever you wanted in life.
[George S] All right, are you working, Mike?
We've got customers. Call 'em in. Let's go.
Where's Mimi?
Go to work, let's go.
[George S VO] I was married.
I was divorced.
Then, I was with somebody else.
We were together for like, you know,
three or four years already, and I was gonna marry her.
[George S] Now you're lying to me again?
Then I caught her cheating on me.
What are you gonna do?
I have four amazing kids.
5, 8, 13, and 18.
You know, I'm a single dad.
[chuckling] Wow!
[George S VO] So it's hard to get the time away right now.
Maybe put on the bottom of it: "single.
You can date this tree guy."
[turkeys gobbling]
[Jane VO] Hey, kids!
I know what you want.
They only like me for my money. [chuckles]
[Jane VO] I'm Jane Waterman.
[George N VO] And I'm George.
- [chuckles] - George Nash.
[Jane VO] We are Uptown Christmas Trees!
We've been selling trees for 49 years.
♪upbeat classic rock ♪
[George N VO] Our official company motto is--
[Jane VO] Let me say it, 'cause I'm the one who made it up.
You are the one who made it up.
"Sell the fucking tree!"
Come here, kids!
[turkeys gobbling]
These guys walk around like that all day long.
[Jane VO] Every one of our nine grandchildren have worked for
us, and all of our children have worked for us at one time or
another.
[George N] Swing it out, Ciree.
[Ciree] No, no. I just need...
It's-- it's just waving.
There.
[Ciree VO] I'm Ciree Nash,
and I run Uptown Christmas Trees with my parents.
We are basically the first people that were above
Central Park in Harlem.
[Jane] Oh, he's not that clean, it turns out.
- [Jane and Ciree laugh] - I'm perfectly clean.
[Ciree, laughing] Perfectly clean.
If you look, it's like a yellow stain all down your shirt.
[Ciree VO] Trees has just been such a huge part of my life.
It's shaped our whole entire family.
And this year, I'm taking over the business.
[Jane] This is for the baby ducks who...
were living here all the time.
Now, I don't know.
They took off somewhere, but that's what happens when they
grow up.
Everybody grows up and moves away eventually.
Even our Christmas tree people do!
[Jane VO] We're in our 70s now and,
you know, we're not gonna be able to do this forever.
[Jane] There's some over there for you, Virginia!
[Jane VO] Ciree's the one that had the skillset to do it.
And a ambition.
[Jane VO] We had a five-year program for her so that she
would take on a little bit at a time until she was able to run
the whole thing and we could back off.
[Ciree VO] It came about at a, like,
really...
- [laughs] - [Jane] I don't even remember.
I-- this was after I got sober.
[Ciree VO] If you Google my name,
two things come up:
that I'm the owner of a multimillion-dollar business,
and then I have a-- was arrested for heroin.
[Jane] Well, you were also prescribed...
I was one of those, you know, prescribed...
I had to have a hysterectomy and-- and that was,
you know, a lot of problems, and I was one of those fall victims
being overprescribed.
I was an addict for like 10 years and nobody knew about it.
- [Jane] She had twins... - [Ciree] Mm.
And a toddler...
- [chuckles] - At the same time, so...
- Yeah. - That was a bad combination.
It was a bad combination.
Also, I also didn't know how to be like,
"I need help.
I do not have all my shit together."
[Jane] People who have gotten sober from that,
they're strong people.
Right after I had gotten sober, I was deciding what I was gonna
do with my life.
My parents were like,
"Why don't you just take over the business?"
Entrusting that with me was a huge thing,
them being like, "We trust you.
We trust you to hand this to you,
this legacy.
This thing we have spent 40 years building."
There's things about my parents that drive me insane.
[Ciree] Just leave it, leave it, just leave, leave it...
But I also have no idea what I'm gonna do without them.
Like none.
Like, I can't even-- I can't even talk about it now because I
don't know what I'm gonna do.
So I just...
savor those moments and not get annoyed,
and just...
I love them, so...
[chuckles]
[Jane] Hello, turkeys.
[turkeys gobbling]
♪upbeat Christmas music ♪
[Heather VO] My name is Heather Neville.
I own and operate NYC Tree Lady in New York City selling
Christmas trees.
There's not a lot of women that do this,
you know?
Like there's not, like...
So I think that was-- like, I wanted to really flaunt that.
So what do you wanna do?
Uh, yeah, wait, hold on.
Um, what size tree?
You're looking for the seven- to eight-footers, right?
[Heather VO] First job was a dog groomer,
and then I worked for, like, a sex therapist for a while.
When I started selling Christmas trees,
I worked for somebody else 20 years ago.
Pretty sexist and, uh, paid me like shit.
So then I started working for George Smith.
He paid me really, really well and I worked for him for a
couple of years.
And then, when I married my husband,
he was like, "What are you doing?"
I had, like, all these different ideas and-- and things that I
wanted to do and, uh, I couldn't do it for somebody else,
so I just did it myself, and here I am.
When I'm not selling trees, I have a hot sauce and exotic meat
store.
So this is Goodies Gone Wild.
[laughs]
This is-- we'll start here.
These are, like, all the...
exotic meats like kangaroo, alligator here.
This is our pig head.
Camel, python, rabbits.
Anything that I could possibly get my hands on,
I'll sell.
Kiss the pig, Jonah, kiss the pig!
[Heather VO] I don't eat it.
Um, but other people do.
♪
My dream is to sell beaver hot dogs.
[laughs]
So, I wanted my logo to be a spicy beaver.
It's a reflection of who I am.
I am a spicy beaver.
[laughs]
Look it up, kids! All right?
[laughs]
[George S VO] All you did was Heather, Greg, Nash,
and me right now, right?
[director] Yeah, just you guys. Nobody else.
That's it? That's everybody on the list?
- That's it? - [director] Yeah.
There's only five families here?
[director] Yeah.
Why, you couldn't get Kevin Hammer?
♪ominous Christmas music ♪
[George N VO] Winter of '74, I had a small construction
company.
I had a little one-ton flatbed truck.
Somebody had hired me to truck a load of Christmas trees down to
Springfield, Mass for them.
I was headed down Interstate 89.
Right there near Bethel somewhere I see lights flashing
behind me.
And these guys pull up in this decrepit van,
they have heavy Brooklyn accents.
They start interrogating me almost about where did I get
those trees?
"We wanna buy Christmas trees."
They wanted to buy Christmas trees.
"You sell us those trees."
They had driven up to Vermont because they figured,
you know, they could find Christmas trees there.
I said, "Well, you could call-- we could call the grower."
So we drove to the rest stop, jammed me into a phone booth and
started feeding me quarters, and I called the grower I got the
trees from.
He said, "Sure, I have, uh, maybe a few hundred trees left,"
he says.
And so he says, "We'll buy 'em!"
And they said to me, "Would you truck them for me?"
"Sure, why not?"
And that fellow was named Kevin Hammer.
He was 19 years old, saved by the Church of Scientology.
♪
I never knew that until years later.
Kevin, to his credit, had this brilliant insight,
which, up to that point, it seems nobody had ever had,
which was that you could sell really nice Christmas trees on
the sidewalk in New York for the same prices the florists and the
little delis were all selling crappy Christmas trees for.
Then the next year, he had grown already to the point where I
couldn't supply him anymore trees myself.
He's the largest seller in the city.
He has a hundred lots.
He's smarter than most of us.
[Greg VO] Very first year, we met our buddy, Kevin Hammer.
We put up a sign in Manhattan:
"Coming December 3rd!"
So he set up a stand there, of course.
And we were like, "Didn't you see the sign?"
He said, "Of course I saw the sign.
That's why I set up a stand here.
I don't want you here."
[George N VO] He began getting the notion that every tree that
moved in the city, he ought to have some say or control
over it.
There's this whole legend in the industry that he's some kind of
terrifying Keyser Soze kind of guy.
Is he interviewing with you? No.
Fuck no. Did you call him?
Call him. I'll give you his number.
I'll call him. He hates me.
He fucking hates me.
I don't know why.
I mean, I kind of do, but whatever.
Fuck that guy.
I created Kevin Hammer.
I'm responsible for him.
I-- I sometimes lose sleep over it,
with guilt over that.
[ringing]
[automated voice] Your call has been forwarded to an automated
voice message system.
At the tone, please record your message.
When you have finished recording,
you may hang up or press one...
[George N VO] And then the next three years,
we had a vicious turf war.
- ♪ominous music ♪ - [people shouting]
[Ciree VO] There's a long history of retailers being
pitted against each other.
[Greg VO] It was a tougher New York 30 years ago.
We used to pay off people.
We used to pay off the mafia.
I never paid off no mafia, so I don't know about that.
We were really big then in the wholesale business,
and we were doing very well, but I didn't realize that I was
stepping on the toes of the legitimate mafia wholesalers.
We got a message loud and clear.
We got shaken down.
We got extorted.
We got robbed.
There was a competitor murdered.
[Greg VO] It's so different today.
But it's still not a place to step on someone's toes if you
don't know what you're doing.
[Greg] Finding tree locations in New York City is probably the
toughest part, because the only real source is New York City
Parks Department.
So the city, they wait until, uh,
August to have this auction.
And at that auction, we put in a closed-seal bid,
we go to this room, they open the bids,
and that's how you get your location.
I'm pretty sure I know what's gonna happen,
but...
[chuckling] it's gonna be interesting.
[woman on phone] Good morning, we're gonna be getting started
up in the next few minutes.
- Um... - Can they see me, Greg?
[woman] Just make sure during the opening you stay on mute,
and if you have any questions, save them until the end.
I'm the BQE, so I'm Long Island City,
Brooklyn...
The Nashes have the Harlem area.
[Ciree VO] George Smith is, like, more downtown.
[George S VO] It's like the old Jewish saying:
the three things you need in business--
location, location, location.
This year, I think I'll have seven stands.
[Ciree VO] Heather is the southern belle,
and I'm the Queen of the North.
[Greg VO] And then, of course, Kevin Hammer's all over the
place.
We're bidding on four stands.
Just the four we always have.
Hopefully the other guys will do the same.
[Ciree VO] You're bidding against each other,
but there's just an unwritten rule that that's my spot.
You don't bid on that.
Marks... Heather...
George is here.
Evergreen.
Who's Evergreen?
[woman] Okay, we're about to get started.
We're gonna start with ABC Playground at Essex and
Norfolk Street.
Greg's Holiday Center, 7,000.
Moving on to Manhattan, St. Catherine's Park,
First Avenue, is Heather Neville,
11,187.
Same location.
This is from George Smith.
24,000.
Asshole stole my spot.
[George S laughs]
[Heather on phone] George bid, like, some ridiculous amount on it.
I know. That spot's not that good.
Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.
[woman] New location.
This is from George Smith, Lifetime Garden Center.
Same location.
This is an electronic bid from Evergreen East.
- Oh, Hammer! - Hammer's jumping in.
[woman] New location.
Samuel Seabury Playground.
Heather Neville, 10,287.
[Heather VO] I won 96th and Lexington.
Now, Heather's at 96th Street.
She's in direct competition with me.
[Jane VO] And originally she said she wasn't gonna bid on it
so that we could bid on it.
And then out of the clear blue sky,
she decided to bid on it.
Why would you?
You're not in that neighborhood.
I might've upset people, but, you know,
it is what it is.
Like, I didn't do anything wrong.
[woman] New location.
E111TR, in Washington Park,
JJ Byrne Playground.
This is also from Gregory Walsh, Greg's Holiday Center,
5,000.
This is the same location.
This is from Evergreen East, Kevin Hammer,
6,000.
[sighs]
[woman] This is an electronic bid?
And that was an electronic bid.
[sighs] Well, we just lost a very valuable spot, Greg.
Damn it.
[sighs]
Kevin Hammer...
[whispering] I'll fucking kill him.
[woman] We're still in Brooklyn?
Ah, I'm so stupid!
[woman] And that concludes the bid opening for today.
Does anybody have any questions?
[Little Greg] Yeah, why are you running this, you moron?
[woman] Does anyone have any questions or need me to repeat
anything?
[Little Greg] Have her repeat it all, just to screw with her.
[Greg VO] Our mission statement of Greg's Trees was to change
Christmas trees from just being trees on an A-frame in the
middle of Manhattan.
We wanted to change it to Winter Wonderland--
this place where you go and be like, "Wow!"
Cutouts, Santa, music.
And JJ is just...
the ultimate spot.
Now it's just gonna be a Kevin Hammer spot.
I founded that spot.
I put the paperwork in for that spot seven years ago.
I had it last year.
And now Kevin Hammer's gonna have my spot?
And they made us sign papers saying like that we were
agreeing to this.
Like we-- we don't agree to this.
It was like, "You know, well, it's that or you can't do it."
Like, you know what I mean?
Park Department suggested I try to make a deal with him,
like trade him another spot that I have,
which I would do if I have to.
[ringing]
[Kevin VO] Hello?
[woman VO] Hi, is this Kevin?
[Kevin VO] Yeah.
[woman VO] I'm working on a documentary about the Christmas
season.
[Kevin VO] Okay.
[woman VO] I just wanted to check in to see if you might be
interested in being part of the documentary.
[Kevin VO] Nah.
I just, you know...
Look,
there's no possible upside to any of this.
[Ciree] I'm optimistic about this year,
only because...
I think I know better what to expect.
I don't feel like I'm going into it blindly like last year,
not knowing how bad last year was gonna be.
Our retail was down by like... [sighs]
20 percent!
Like we sold...
Out of 20,000 trees, I threw away 3,000.
That's a lot.
I usually sell-- throw out under a hundred.
[Ciree VO] That's the thing about this business is the
learning curve is super steep.
I have five weeks, you know?
It's not like I have all this time that I can sell these
trees.
I got too many trees, I gotta throw them out.
[Greg coughs]
[Greg] How tall's it now?
I don't know, I can't see the number.
[Greg] I mean, we can cut two, three feet off that bottom if
- you want to. - [man] Yeah.
[Greg] And we'll trim off some of those branches.
- [man] 16 foot to the tip. - Yeah.
We're being easy, right?
- [man] Yeah. - [laughs]
[man] That's the fastest we've ever picked 'em out.
I know, we're usually all day here doing this.
[director VO] How do you find trees?
Where do you go?
Where do I go?
[director] Yeah.
I would rather that we not talk about that.
Um...
I'm not gonna tell you that.
Nobody says where we buy our trees from,
because then they all try to buy from where we buy.
It's important to keep the secrets 'cause I like to make my
money and I don't want someone else affecting that.
That would dramatically change my life.
We're out here working in August,
sweating on these hills, and getting the finest trees.
[Heather VO] Like I don't want it to be like a "How to sell
Christmas trees in New York City" documentary,
you know? 'Cause it's like that's...
I'll just set their trees on fire and nobody wants that.
I don't wanna be in jail. [laughing] You know?
Our next interview will be behind bars.
[laughs]
I buy all my trees from five states, basically.
There's Oregon, Washington State,
Michigan, North Carolina, Tennessee.
[director] How much do the trees cost you from the farms?
None of your business.
[laughing] Sorry.
A lot of money. [laughs]
Honestly, I take a loan out...
of my other business. [laughs]
If I died tomorrow, my kids would be screwed.
[laughs]
[Greg VO] I'd do a lot of work to find these growers.
We buy $400,000 or something worth of Christmas trees.
There's a lot of money spent flying there and driving around
and meeting these guys and checking out their trees and you
try their trees.
You never let anybody know the farms you going to.
This is very rare.
[Little Greg] You're just screaming this on national
television.
Moron.
[Greg] Greg's calling me a moron for putting this on national
television.
♪Christmas hip-hop instrumental ♪
[George N VO] This time of year, we have to go check out all our
locations just to make sure they're still there.
[George N] Yeah, we missed you!
Mwah!
[George N] Sometimes, you see a landlord and they say,
"Oh, the rent's gonna be higher this year."
[George N] Here, have some cookies!
[George N VO] So it's basically just making sure there are no
unpleasant surprises when we show up in December.
♪
[Ciree] Also, just to be like,
"Hey, we are coming back."
♪
They're giving us a ticket right now!
[George N] What?
[Ciree] Are you giving me a ticket right now?
- Yes, I am. - [George N] For what?
You didn't pay for the meter.
[George N] Yeah, we did. It's right there!
- Look, it's right here! - Well, it's facing down.
There you go.
[George N] Look.
[Ciree] Jesus Christ.
[George N] You're still giving us a ticket?
Thanks, buddy!
Thanks, that's really generous of you.
Fucking asshole.
♪Merry Christmas and happy New Year ♪
♪
My son drove my car the other day and, like,
he pushed the emergency SOS button,
so now, like, every time I start it...
He just wanted to see what it did.
I'm like, "It's fricking...
it calls the police!"
So now, every time I start my car,
it, like, goes off.
I think it's gonna be a good season.
I mean, like, last year, I gauged how the season was gonna
be based on the boardwalk store.
So, like, I kind of, like...
can gauge how the economy's doing through that.
So I'm hoping, um...
I'm hoping we have a good season.
You know?
[Heather VO] It's not like you can sell them...
you know, next season, you know?
It's like, this is it.
So it's like you gotta...
you buy cautiously, and you pray that they sell.
Like, it's really hard to say, 'cause I'm not in the city,
I don't know the spirit of the people here.
I think that after COVID, a lot of families moved out because
they could work remotely, also because the rents got really
high.
It's changed so much over the years.
You know, and I don't think for the better.
But-- but it's a great city.
New York is a great city.
So, I guess time will tell.
♪exciting Christmas music ♪
- Tree Season! - Tree Season!
- Starts...
Now!
Tree season's been started already.
I'm not a slacker!
♪
[Ciree VO] Set-up is a very well-organized,
controlled chaos.
[George N VO] We need to transport all our equipment.
They all get loaded up in Vermont.
[woman] All right, you guys.
So just a reminder: Busy...
gas.
F-150?
- [George N] Diesel. - Great.
- U-Haul? - [man] Gas.
[woman] Yes.
Maggie's gonna lead the pack.
I'll take up the rear.
Everybody else, jockey for the middle.
Any questions?
- [man] No ma'am. - [woman] Woo!
- [Effie] All right! - [man] Good luck, everybody.
[Effie] Here we go!
The Saturday before Thanksgiving is the day we actually start
building.
It's crunch time.
♪exciting orchestral music ♪
We never say how much is sold, how many we bought.
We never get numbers-- into the numbers.
The only person who knows those numbers is the IRS.
♪
[Greg VO] My truckers will be running 24 hours a day,
seven days a week for next 10 days,
back and forth to North Carolina,
back and forth to Oregon, nonstop.
[truck horn]
[Heather VO] You keep your fingers crossed that the trees
come in nice, they come in on time.
Someone guide him, please!
Can you guide him?
[Heather VO] It's such a crazy thing.
You're setting up.
Every moment really, really counts.
Do you have a driver's license?
[Greg] There it is.
This is home and office for the next, uh...
month.
This A-frame is going up here.
[man] Yes.
[Greg VO] By the 20th, every stand will be in development.
[kid] What're you doing?
[woman] We're getting ready to sell Christmas trees.
[kid] Oh yeah, that's what those things are!
Electricity's not working.
[sighs] [chuckles]
[Greg VO] By the 23rd, every stand will be just about the way
we want it to be.
And by the 26th, they're all gonna be perfect.
[George S VO] Getting the trucks ready,
loading everything, get it delivered,
setting up, build the location, dealing with the truckers,
dealing with the suppliers.
I am on site each and every day.
I'm a working boss.
If you're single and you wanna mingle...
You know, I'm single and mingle...
You know, you gotta give people a shot,
you gotta try 'em out and talk to them.
Speed dating is weird.
It's a different chapter for me.
Girls are way too picky.
I think you need one or two dates to figure it out
and to pick if you relate to that person.
I just pick everybody. I wanna be nice.
Hey!
[George S VO] Heather met her husband during Christmas season
working for me.
You know, experiences happen in the tree business like no other.
You never know what's gonna happen the next day.
[Ciree] Yay!
- [George N] Yay! - [Ciree] Yay!
Hi!
I miss you!
Ah, you guys had a good time?
[chuckles]
Ah, everybody's here finally.
What a relief.
[Ciree VO] I'm a great mom.
It's like my best achievement in the world is my kids.
[Ciree] How are you? I missed you.
These are the twins, my twins.
[laughs]
[Ciree VO] I'll tell you, my kids, they've had such an
education that they would never get in school.
Nice!
I got the same knife as you.
She did, she got the same-- where's your...
[Ciree VO] Kids in Vermont, getting to come down to this
fabulous, cosmopolitan city of New York and live here for a
month and a half every year.
You interact with people differently when you see all
kinds of different people.
[director VO] Do you remember the first tree you ever sold?
Yeah, I was 10 years old.
It was on 110th Street.
Somebody asked me the question, "How much is the tree?"
And I sold it for, like, a ridiculously high price.
And my dad was so proud. [laughs]
He was so proud.
Okay, only one more truck to get! [laughs]
[Ciree VO] It's not a material thing that my parents built.
[George N] One more truck to deal with.
It's not really a company, it's kind of just-- it's our--
it's our life.
[Greg through megaphone] Stay off that naughty list!
Hah!
All day long.
[chatter]
[Greg VO] Greg was going to Penn State,
doing very good.
He had a 3.67 GPA for three semesters.
And then he dropped out without asking his mother and me,
'cause we would've said no.
And he got bored and he wanted to come home and help me.
So this year he's fully vested, fully in,
24 hours a day.
And I didn't request it, I didn't ask him to do it,
but I kinda...
I-- I need him, so...
♪tender acoustic music ♪
[man] Greg, are wreaths going over the fence?
Over the fence.
[Greg] The trees.
[Little Greg] They're talking about wreaths!
- Trees! - [Little Greg] Wreaths!
I'll bet!
You wanna bet they're talking about trees?!
[Little Greg] He just said "wreaths."
They're putting trees over there, asking you!
Why are you arguing with me?
[Little Greg] 'Cause you're...
[Greg] Are the trees going over the fence?
Yes, I told-- The five-six are staying here!
[Greg] Over the fence?
The wreaths they're talking about!
[Greg] They don't go over the fence.
[Little Greg] Who are you yelling at?
I'm yelling at you!
The five-six are staying here, all right?
[Little Greg VO] I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do with my
life, so I just wanted a year break and...
now that's kind of evolved into...
more of a permanent break.
Five-six, five-six, and four-five.
Also, I wanted to spend some more time with my dad.
[Greg] Time to start the season!
You gotta take a look at a couple,
see how they look.
- Perfect. - [Little Greg] Four-five.
Beautiful!
[Greg VO] He's never ran a stand.
His role always is to hang out with me.
Four-five...
[Greg VO] My only anxiety this year is getting Greg ready to do
this on his own.
Who's calling this?
Greg, you're calling this over the wall, right?
[Greg VO] I really wanna teach him how to do this and,
you know, 20-year-olds, uh...
they don't listen.
But I'm probably transferring the business into his name
this year.
[George S] My crew is the best in the business.
Look at my guys!
They're like little elves.
I gotcha.
[George S] How are we doing up here, guys?
♪tender acoustic music ♪
[Heather] Just double park!
♪
My truckers usually don't unload.
It's like a special treat, baby!
Yeah, I got no problem working.
[Heather VO] Like everything in life,
there's no guarantees.
Everything is a shot in the dark,
a roll of the dice.
Christmas trees is no exception.
[Heather] I mean, look, this is empty!
Why is this empty, guys?
And we have all this space!
See all this happy little space here?
Wait, hold on, I don't even want you doing this
because of your finger.
You're gonna pop that finger right open.
Get down, move, move, move.
Where's the shed key?
Who has the shed key?
Oh, I got it.
I left some shed keys in the other one,
so you probably have two.
[Heather] Rise and shine, baby!
Wake up, wake up!
Wakey, wakey!
Come on, baby!
- [man] Go! - [Heather] Get up!
Out!
Come on, you gotta get out, bud!
This ain't a free ride.
This is my shed. You gotta get out, bud.
You gotta wake up, baby doll.
Come on.
Get yourself situated. You all right?
You're good?
All right, you gotta get outta here, bud.
Move.
Let him get situated.
It's good.
[chuckles]
What's your name?
- [Kevin] It's Kevin. - [Heather] Kevin?
- Are you sober? - [Kevin] Yeah.
[Heather] Or are you a user?
- Do you drink? - [Kevin] Yes.
[Heather] You gotta stop drinking, Kev.
You know that, right?
You deserve to live inside of a home that keeps you warm,
not to sneak into a shed.
- Do you understand that, Kev? - [Kevin] Yes.
[Heather] You gotta stop drinking, dude.
I got nine years, the best nine years of my life.
[Heather VO] A lot of people, when they go down these darker
roads of life, like, they have a hard time pulling themselves out
and they feel hopeless.
[Heather] Kevin, there's meetings everywhere, dude.
All you gotta do is walk in the door, Kevin.
That's all you have to do.
All you have to do is walk in.
Okay?
[Kevin] Thank you so much.
- [Heather] I love you, Kev. - [Kevin] Take care.
[Heather] All right. God bless, Kev.
[Heather VO] Why do you think people feel worthless?
'Cause somebody said something to them that made them feel
worthless.
Maybe your one compliment can change the way that they look at
themselves.
You don't know what kind of impact you have,
how powerful you can be, and I think people don't realize how
powerful we are to each other.
♪
[Georgie VO] I was a wild drunk
10 years ago, and I was in between restaurant jobs and,
um...
I stumbled into Heather's stand on like 24th Street or some
fucking thing like that.
I said, "You got a job?"
She said, "Yeah, be here nine o'clock."
I said, "All right, let's go, motherfucker."
It's a dirty job, but someone's got to fucking do it!
I start walking around cleaning.
I crank up the music.
Bam!
You know, I'm rocking, I'm cleaning.
I pick all this up, you see?
♪
Cleanliness is next to holiness and godliness, right?
♪
If we start early enough in November,
you got almost a week for people to get their feet underneath
them before the first big weekend,
and they have to really be together by that point.
Well, why don't you put the ladder in this empty spot
right here?
[George N VO] And the other thing is is we've got to bring
the right team.
If you wanna know how to hire the right person for the job,
there's two questions.
The first question is: what are you doing right now?
You should be able to say what you're doing right now in one or
two sentences.
If you can answer that question, you get question two:
do you go outside ever?
What kind of physical things do you do?
Can you stand on a street corner for 12 hours a day for 35 days
without a break?
[Colby] I've been at this corner for six years,
but I've been coming down for 15 years now.
My parents sold Christmas trees before I was born.
My brother sold Christmas trees, so it's just kind of been in my
family for years now.
[Greg S VO] The people that work for me,
they show up, they're full of energy,
they're mountain climbers,
they're ski instructors and stuff.
So you're around that.
This is my little home.
[laughs]
The shower situation is that, um...
one, I'm the kind of person that doesn't need a shower
that often.
So I went two weeks. [laughs]
I met someone, she walks her senior dog,
and she was like "I live around the corner.
Like, here's my number. Just...
next time you need a shower, just call me."
You have to love it. We call it "tree fever."
So I just want to give you-- do a little twirl,
like the modeling thing for runway.
[chuckles]
I used to do EMS my whole life and then...
Christmas trees, and ever since, I will-- I'll do this as long as
I can.
I truly just love it.
Underneath the table
is where I sleep.
This old guy found this heater on the street and brought it to
us, so we got the microwave and the heater just,
you know...
It's easy to find free stuff.
Oh, yeah, and that's Charlie's night table.
He can tell you about his bedroom...
[Charlie laughs]
He used to have to share a bedroom with Kyle.
Yeah, Kyle used to be here.
We miss him so much.
♪"Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy"♪
It's just basic stuff, you know?
♪
[Ciree VO] I gonna look at these ones down here.
[Jane] You'll find somebody will buy it.
There's a person for every tree.
[Ciree] It hasn't been that long.
We haven't been selling for even a week.
But so far, everybody seems to be...
[Jane] They're selling the trees.
[Ciree] They're selling trees.
We're right on target where we were last year.
And these are the seven to nines,
- which are... - They got size to 'em.
They got size, which means-- but it seems like they're gonna have
to cut, like...
cut the bottoms down.
Ugh, I'm super disappointed.
But also, I was, like, super pumped.
I thought these were gonna, like...
we were getting, like, really beautiful trees and I was like,
"Oh, we got good quality."
And now I'm kind of bummed.
They're supposed to be premium trees.
These are really nice for a number one or a number two.
[Ciree] Those are not.
We put out a thing for all of our managers,
like "What do you guys think?
What do they look like?"
The consensus is that they look more like balsam,
which is fine.
But what we are really-- I'm just trying to get out to people
is there's no frasers in the city
because of the high demand and then all the box stores buy them
up before little guys can get them,
and...
people are just gonna have to realize that you're not gonna be
able to buy a fraser for a couple years.
Home Depot and Lowe's really has changed the way people buy trees
and just like-- it-- it's really affected us.
When people think about what a tree is supposed to cost,
they're going by what's advertised in these big box
stores.
[Greg VO] It's pretty difficult for anybody to compete with big
box store-type business.
I mean, it's very scary to make money now.
They don't give a shit about your tree.
They're just loss leaders.
They're not making money off the Christmas trees.
They do it because they can, and because they want you to buy
their plastic balls.
That's really what it boils down to,
and it's bullshit.
[George S VO] They care about the bottom dollar.
They wanna be sold out before the holiday's over.
They wanna move it in and move it out quick.
[director] If someone says to you,
"No, no, we get artificial."
That's even worse.
Everyone that gets artificial, a lot of times they say is better
for the environment, which is false.
We're not going a forest and just cutting down trees.
These trees are just agriculture.
Every time they cut down a tree, they're planting five to ten
more,
unlike artificial, which is plastic based in China,
and then it's all the fossil fuel to get it over here,
and then you throw it out.
[Greg VO] The fake tree, people don't realize they're gonna last
for 50,000 years, not going anywhere.
You put that in a-- in a landfill,
it's never leaving.
[Heather VO] My mother, she got an artificial tree!
I'm like, "What are you doing?!
Like, are you serious?!
You're part of the problem, Mom!
Like, you're fucking gonna bankrupt me!"
[George] The whole fake section.
We don't like-- we don't like fake stuff.
Would you put a plastic man in your bedroom?
Who wants a fake tree in their life?
You want it real.
You wanna smell it, touch it, and feel it.
[Ciree laughs]
[director] Ciree, have you heard from Kevin Hammer at all?
Uh... [laughs]
No.
I mean, I talked to him at the beginning of the season before
we got trees.
[George N] Ehh...
I know. [chuckles]
But some developments have happened since then.
[Greg grunts]
[Greg VO] This year, we had this crazy thing with Kevin Hammer.
But, uh, he came by my stand.
Me and Kevin had a wonderful time.
We went to Peter Luger's, he bought me a beautiful steak
lunch.
We've come to a real, uh, meeting of the minds,
I think, and...
we switched stands, which was, uh-- it was very,
uh-- it was wonderful in a way.
I went into the Parks Department,
and I asked the guy if he heard anything about what we're trying
to do.
He's like, "Greg, it's done.
Kevin sent us an email and you sent us the email so...
you guys are switched."
[Kevin VO] I don't know, I don't wanna comment on any of that.
[George N VO] He's a complex character.
Most people made mistakes of underestimating him.
He enjoys being the king of Christmas trees.
He doesn't wanna stop doing it.
You know, it's really nice in this business to have friends.
You never know.
"Hey, I've run outta wreaths, I've run outta this,
I've run outta that, I got too many of this,
I got too many of that."
What are you supposed to do, go to Canada and get one?
One of your friends. "Hey, I got three."
"All right, gimme one. Next time, I'll give you one."
[Kevin VO] I'm not really interested in that stuff.
Like I just...
Nah, I-- I wouldn't like that.
In any event, I've gotta keep moving.
[Elias] This is a new spot we opened up,
and it's always been pretty good.
The people are nice around here, and it goes pretty smooth,
but all our spots go pretty smooth.
[director] What do you know about that stand over there?
I don't know much about it, I just know that that's a little
bit of competition, I guess, over there,
and, uh...
we're just doing what we do.
We're trying to get people a merry Christmas and that's the
bigger goal here.
That's all we're going for.
♪tense music ♪
[Heather] Get him situated, okay?
I'll only take 10, 15 minutes.
♪
[Heater VO] In an ideal world, we should have a common respect
for people.
[laughs]
You don't set up across the street from somebody unless
you're a real piece of shit.
I don't really know what they're trying to do over there,
but it is what it is.
[sighs]
[Heather] He's fricking everywhere!
You know?
[Heather VO] Let us live, Kev.
Come on, throw me a bone.
[chuckles]
She's a woman, but she got fricking brass balls.
I'm not kidding you.
When we have competitors do different things,
she doesn't even retaliate, she just lets 'em ride and just
goes on.
Too busy to deal with that baby crap.
[Heather VO] You know, there's just gotta be an understanding,
you know? Where, like...
if I'm here, you're not, [chuckling] you know?
♪
[Kevin VO] Do you know what my father used to tell me?
My father used to tell me, "Don't ever give a shit about
what anybody thinks about you, because they probably only think
about themselves."
I don't care what people-- I-- it doesn't matter to me.
Profit... breeds... competition.
You talked to him?!
[laughs]
Did he say nice things about me?
He always does. [laughs]
[woman] ♪I can hardly wait ♪
♪ And I've waited all year long ♪
♪ Not Father Tinsel nor the lights ♪
♪ Or them same old, same old songs ♪
♪ And no, it's not that jolly man ♪
♪ Who streak across the sky ♪
♪ But what I have been waiting for ♪
♪Is the hot ♪
♪Christmas tree guy ♪
♪
♪You know the one, you've got one ♪
♪In your neighborhood ♪
♪Well, mine sets up a forest ♪
♪And I go walking through his woods ♪
♪Between the CVS and YMCA ♪
♪Yeah, that's my winter wonderland and I ♪
♪Jingle all the way ♪
♪
[Roscoe VO] Deliveries have been pretty busy.
[doorbell]
The occasional middle-aged woman trying to seduce you is pretty
fun.
Christmas tree!
[Hank VO] This one woman was really trying to get us to stay.
She offered us drinks and snacks,
and she was asking our taste in music and playing music over the
speakers.
[woman] ♪I can hardly wait ♪
♪I've waited all year long ♪
♪Not for the tinsel or the--♪
♪Well, you know you've already heard this song ♪
♪Yeah, when that big man goes streaking 'cross the sky ♪
♪All I want in my stocking is a...♪
♪Hot Christmas tree guy ♪
♪All I want for Christmas ♪
♪Is my hot ♪
♪Christmas tree ♪
♪ Guy ♪
[woman VO] Watch it, ladies, watch it! [chuckles]
Little Greg...
I got him! I told you.
♪tender acoustic music ♪
Imagine starting to date Little Greg.
He's quiet.
But when you know him, he's not quiet at all.
Hey, Aggie, guess what I sold for you.
- One of my things? - Two of 'em!
[Aggie VO] I don't think a lot of people know,
he's very loving.
He pays attention to the small things,
especially towards me.
- Such a great salesman. - [all laugh]
[Aggie VO] He's a little more shy,
not very outspoken like Big Greg is,
but I think that's his mom.
I think his mom taught him to be very mindful of the words he
says.
They both are the same person
in just different fonts.
[George S VO] So I have a new amazing woman in my life.
We met at speed dating.
I'll tell you the truth:
I went to several other speed datings.
♪tender music ♪
And Karen was different.
The minute I saw her, I knew she was the girl for me.
It was like a firecracker went off in my heart.
She'll make Christmas more enjoyable when you have somebody
to love and share it with.
I guess I'll find out what's wrong with her.
♪
I can't find nothing wrong with her,
so I dunno.
I don't know.
So it's gonna be one 50 after tax.
[woman] All right.
All right. You need change?
[woman] I don't. That's for you.
- Thank you so much. - [woman] Thank you.
[George N VO] The first weekend of December is the biggest
weekend of the whole year now.
We've got everything ready at home.
We'll sell 30 percent or more of our trees that weekend.
We better sell a bunch of fucking trees.
♪But all this year's been a busy blur ♪
♪Don't think I have energy ♪
♪To add to my already mad rush ♪
♪Just 'cause it's 'tis the season ♪
♪The perfect gift for me would be ♪
♪Completions and connections left from last year ♪
♪Ski shop encounter ♪
♪Most interesting ♪
♪Had his number but never the time ♪
♪Most of '81 passed along those lines ♪
♪So deck those halls, trim those trees ♪
♪Raise up cups of Christmas cheer ♪
♪I just need to catch my breath ♪
♪Christmas by myself this year ♪
♪
♪Calendar picture, frozen landscape ♪
♪Chill this room for 24 days ♪
♪Evergreens, sparkling snow ♪
♪Get this winter over with ♪
♪Flash back to spring time, saw him again ♪
♪Would've been good to go for lunch ♪
♪Couldn't agree when we're both free ♪
♪We tried, we said we'd keep in touch ♪
♪Didn't of course, 'til summertime ♪
♪Out to the beach to his boat ♪
♪Could I join him? No ♪
♪This time it was me ♪
♪Sunburn in the third degree ♪
♪Now the calendar's just one page ♪
♪Of course, I am excited ♪
♪Tonight's the night I've set mind ♪
♪Not to do too much about it...♪
You want a Christmas hug?
Come here. Aw!
- How you doing? - [Heather] Good.
- Ho, ho, ho! - [woman] Santa!
Nice, nice, naughty.
- Very naughty. - [chuckling] Oh!
So we're selling trees in the rain.
I just passed three Santas selling nothing.
But we're out there, we've got our rain gear on,
we're in our tents, and we're selling trees.
Ho, ho, ho.
Getting back to work, Greg.
The ghost of Christmas past is those light colors.
If we can do that today, we'll probably be able to do it all
week.
And then...
definitely by Sunday, we'll know...
how the season's gonna go.
If you're doing this a long time,
the trends don't change.
By December 3rd, I'll tell you exactly how many trees I'm gonna
sell, and I'll be very accurate.
♪tense music ♪
Jesus Christ.
♪
I mean, usually it's easier, but this has been a tricky one.
Every day we're open costs me over 10,000 dollars,
I think.
You know, eight stands, we have 30 workers,
they're working 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The landlords, the rent...
23...
[Greg VO] So it's a expensive little game.
23 inch.
[Heather VO] You try to figure out the puzzle of Christmas
trees, and it's not even a puzzle,
it's just a shit show.
I'm walking this way!
Down to Fifth Avenue.
[Jane VO] We generally talk together about
what's gonna happen this year.
But Ciree, she buys all the trees.
[Ciree VO] We have a set target price.
We need to make four times what we pay for our tree to cover
overhead and make money off of it.
You have to kind of try to predict what it's gonna be,
and sometimes you can be just so off the mark.
Seven feet tall.
[Kevin VO] How can anybody predict...
how many people are gonna go away,
which weekend they're gonna go away,
which people are not gonna go away?
I'm doing this too long to predict anything.
[Jane] It certainly isn't gonna sell for what it should sell
for.
[Ciree] I'm gonna deal with it. All right?
- Yeah. - [Ciree] All right!
[Ciree VO] You look at that tree and be like,
"This is supposed to be a premium,"
but there's a hole in this side, or something happened to it,
and so you just get what you can get for it.
Sell the fucking tree.
[Heather] It's, like...
scary how quiet it is, you know?
Like, it's really nerve wracking,
because I should be really busy. [chuckles]
So far it's like, you know, 11 o'clock and, like,
there's really not much doing, so...
It's hard when you're doing a new spot because...
people typically buy their tree where they bought it from the
year before,
you know?
So changing that pattern...
is-- is tricky.
I didn't have high hopes for it, you know?
I just-- I lost a spot,
so I just was trying to make up,
hoping-- I was being hopeful and thought I could find a way to
make up the gap a little bit for the spot that I lost.
So...
but...
[chuckling] it didn't quite work out that way,
so what are you gonna do?
You know?
♪ Up on the housetop reindeer paws ♪
♪ Out jumps good old Santa Claus ♪
♪ Down through the chimney with lots of toys ♪
♪ All for the little ones Christmas joys...♪
[George S VO] Wow, you guys picked a gorgeous tree.
[girl chuckles]
And we have 60 dollars.
[George S] Wow!
You go, girl!
Well, this is a little more than 60 dollars.
How much is this tree?
This is, uh...
Lemme see how many feet it is.
I'll take a look, I'll take a look.
It says four feet.
This tree is 110.
- How much you guys got? - 60 dollars.
You gotta come up a little more than that.
How about we get Dad involved over here?
Did you explain why you think they might have trouble selling
it for that price?
Because it got eaten by we-- weevils!
How much did Daddy give you to help out?
[girl] 20!
[George S] Santa Claus called me!
He told me two girls would come to my tree stand today and buy a
lovely tree.
And he told me you're gonna get double presents for Christmas.
How's Dad not gonna...
put in 20 dollars for that?
- Here you go, guys. - [girls] Thank you.
Don't forget what to do with that ornament later.
Don't forget what to do with it, okay?
[George S VO] Sunday's usually the best day of the week for us,
'cause Sunday's more of a family day.
This is the set weekend to know how we're gonna plan for the
rest of the month.
And with this being a rain-out now,
if we have stuff on order, we'll try to cancel some stuff.
We'd reroute things and change things around.
- Here we go! - [girl] Thank you!
Thank you, thank you!
Merry Christmas!
[George S] See you next year!
[man] Yep!
We should have a lot of customers right now.
But we don't.
So it all depends what's gonna happen.
How much does one that's like this tall cost?
- [man] Uh... - [woman] Or like this tall?
Yeah, for a fraser fir, like a seven-foot fraser is 299.
[woman] Oh.
Mm, I don't know if we can make that one happen.
That's like a...
75-dollar Home Depot purchase.
Um, so let's operate in the less than 200-dollar range.
This is 175 for these trees.
They're between six and seven feet.
This looks like the part of the top of the tree that you cut
off.
[Greg VO] You can't just sell trees on a wall,
with nothing interesting and guys who don't care,
'cause eventually everybody's just gonna go to Home Depot
then, or a big box store.
All right, shake hands with it and we'll see if it's the right
one to bring home, okay?
[Greg VO] A lot of times, people don't know what they want.
So you gotta help that family.
It has to have a special feeling when you buy a tree.
I love it!
Do you guys love it? Should we bring it home?
- [girl] Yes. - Amazing!
[Greg VO] I've had a lot, a lot of really magical moments with
people buying a Christmas tree and just walking down,
carrying it together.
We're very lucky to be doing what we're doing.
Almost every customer is happy when they buy a tree.
It's a pretty happy moment.
♪ trombone playing jazzy music ♪
[Ciree] Is this local?
Yeah, it is local.
- Okay. - [woman] Hi!
[phone dings]
Greg wants me to do all-- to do his deliveries.
He wants to do multiple drops.
- I said it cost-- - Uh-oh.
It costs 200 dollars minimum for a drop.
[George N VO] Kevin has a real issue with me selling trees to
people he regards as competitors,
and that conversation did not end very well.
Everybody gets their big trees from us--
George, Greg, Heather, they all get their big trees from us.
[phone dings]
Oh, we got the big tree going.
This is from Ciree.
He called me up the next time and I didn't even pick up--
I didn't even answer the phone, I just handed it to Ciree.
And Ciree says, "Allow me to formally introduce myself.
I'm taking over the business now and you're dealing with me and
not George.
I'm gonna sell trees to anybody I feel like.
I think we should all work together,
and help each other out."
[Ciree VO] Kevin, I think he's softened a little bit in his old
age, or so he says.
But Kevin is Kevin.
[phone chirps]
Oh, okay, okay.
I got Ciree texting me.
Balsam trees.
[Ciree VO] It's the tree season relationship.
"Hey, you got stuff, I got stuff.
You wanna trade, work out?"
Like, we're working with each other.
♪uplifting music ♪
[Heather] Andrew, come install a tree!
[Ciree VO] Heather called me yesterday.
"Do you have a big tree?" And I'm like, "Let me go look."
Yeah, there's one.
It's not-- no claim-- no claim to it.
Nobody wants it."
If there's something that I can help her out and it's gonna help
me and it's gonna help both of us,
that's kind of what you do.
[Heather] Come on, Andrew.
You're giving up, old man?
Seriously?
[Jane VO] It's not like we share everything.
I mean, our special trade secrets are our special trade
secrets, but we're friends and, you know,
when we can help each other out, we do to a certain extent.
[Andrew] This is loaded with pine cones.
Okay.
Or you're weak, then there's that, you know.
[Andrew] I ain't breaking a sweat.
[Heather laughs]
[Heather] Whoa! Slipping, slipping, slipping.
It's a beautiful tree.
Put water in him if you want him to live.
If you want him to die, don't water him.
- [man] Okay. - [Heather] Okay, cool.
Thanks-- thanks, guys.
♪
[chainsaw]
[Greg grunts]
Tada!
[man] One, two, three!
[Greg] Everybody underneath! Grab underneath and push up!
You know what you need? You need a piece of wood!
A qu-- a two-by...
Good enough. Okay.
Who's going to Harlem?
How you doing, Chris?
[Chris on phone] Hi, good morning, Greg.
How are you?
I'm driving a 20-foot truck with a 20-foot tree in the back right
now, and I'm an hour late.
♪jazzy Christmas music ♪
[Greg grunts]
[sighs]
What a harrowing journey I was on.
[Greg VO] We have a wonderful project we do every year.
This group in Harlem, they put up a tree,
and it's a very important tree.
The guy who was selling it to them priced them out,
and they were very scared in what they were gonna do.
Ciree asked me if I would do it for them for the price that they
were offering.
We do it with a lot of care and we help 'em decorate it.
We work on it for like three days.
It's 20-feet tall.
♪heartwarming Christmas music ♪
[cheering]
You have a big tree-lighting ceremony with Santa,
which is gonna be probably me this year.
Santa's confusing a little bit for kids,
but Santa is very real.
♪
High five!
Turn around, turn around for Grandma.
Ho, ho, ho!
[Greg VO] Santa's a spirit.
The spirit of giving.
Computer? You want a phone?
Ho, ho, ho!
Oh, arts and crafts!
And you know, if you address a letter "Dear Santa"
and put in a post office box, and it requests a gift in
New York City, it gets answered.
Every one of them.
So obviously there's many, many Santas.
♪
Ho, ho, ho!
- How going, dude? - Good! How are you?
You from Atlanta?
I'm from the North Pole.
Ho, ho, ho!
[Little Greg VO] My dad became Santa when, uh,
our original Santa canceled, and it was like the busiest day
of the year.
[Greg VO] It was a big event, like there was 500 people
showing up.
It was like, "Somebody's gotta be Santa."
[Little Greg VO] He had his large, white beard,
so everyone turned to him and said,
"You gotta put on the suit."
[Greg VO] And, uh, I became Santa.
[Greg] Hello! Come on in!
Welcome!
Welcome to Toyland!
[Greg VO] The last bunch of years,
I'm really studying hard about being a true Santa.
And what do you like for Christmas?
Garbage truck?
You got it, buddy.
There's never a problem when I'm Santa Claus.
[chuckles]
We visited St. Mary's Hospital for Children.
Hello.
Ho, ho, ho!
Hi!
How are you?
[Greg VO] And I-- you know, I thought it was gonna be a
rewarding kind of an experience, but it-- it blew my mind away.
The love that families had for the kids...
Many days delivering toys to good boys.
You waking up for Santa Claus?
♪
Nice to meet you, my buddy!
Merry Christmas. [kiss]
♪
Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas.
[kiss]
Ho, ho, ho!
[Greg] You want a picture?
- Get in there. - [man] Thanks.
[Greg] Ho, ho, ho!
- Look at that picture! - Look at that!
Ho, ho, ho!
- Thank you, Santa. - [laughs]
- You do great work. - [Greg] Thank you.
♪
Ho, ho, ho!
Hey, guys.
Hello.
This is my, uh, camera crew.
[phone rings]
Hello?
Okay.
Oh.
I mean, can we do it?
I mean, can we do it like in the next couple of days?
No, right?
I mean, if we do some of the planning up until Saturday,
I go away for two weeks, come back and we do the radiation,
is that crazy?
[woman on phone] Well, you have to talk to Dr. Grossman.
All right.
We got bad news this morning.
Apparently, my prostate cancer is in my lungs.
No, it's okay. [chuckles]
No problem.
The surgeon, radiation people, and everybody are having a
conference right now, and they're gonna tell me by today
what the course of action is,
which is not a good sign when they do that.
[coughing] I'd rather them tell me in a couple weeks.
They don't think surgery's a-- it's gonna work.
I mean, they said it'd be too extensive, so...
a short course of radiation.
[Greg groans]
Which I have a funny feeling they think has no chance of
working whatsoever.
♪tender music ♪
I'll call my sister.
She'll be mad if I don't call her.
- Hey, Noreen. - [Noreen] Hey.
[Greg] Surgery's out.
They said it'd be...
according to them, it would be too extensive.
The part of the lung they'd have to remove would be too
extensive.
[Noreen] Too expensive?
That's what I said!
But she said "Extensive."
"Extensive," not "expensive."
"Extensive."
- [Noreen] Expansive! - Extensive!
Extensive, right?
Whatever.
[Noreen] "Expansive" is the word.
I think it's "extensive."
- "Extensive" is the word. - [Noreen] Extensive!
- Yes! - [Noreen] Okay, okay.
Okay.
So...
[Noreen] So what is it gonna be?
A short course of radiation.
- [Noreen] Oh, alrighty. - Yeah.
♪tender music ♪
[Greg VO] Life goes on, right?
It's not the end.
As Gandalf says in Lord of the Rings,
"It's not the end."
Alcoholics Anonymous teaches us, you know,
we live day by day, so today's a nice day.
And, um, I truly believe in the future,
you know, that...
So...
so far, my plan is to be the worst patient that ever lived
and, you know, I want them to say,
"That guy in 108 is a...
he's an ass!"
I don't want this "Oh, he's such a good guy."
But right now, I'm a good guy.
But when it get-- if I ever get sick like that,
I'm gonna be a...
my plan is to be a jerk, ringing the bell.
"What does he want now?"
No, I couldn't do that.
[Heather VO] I gotta finish eating my breakfast.
What's your ETA to-- roll it down!
What's your ETA to Marcus Garvey?
What's your ETA that address?
[man] 20 minutes.
What's your ETA to Marcus Garvey?
You wanted you to learn how to put the netting on?
Here.
This is actually the wrong size netting but I don't give a shit.
[Keith VO] She is...
an embodiment of an entrepreneur in New York.
One, two, three, pop there.
[Keith VO] Just constant, nonstop.
You think she's being aggressive,
you think she's...
- angry... - They should come down today.
It looks like crap.
But after she tells you in a very strict way how you get
things done, she asks if you're okay and what she can do for
you.
Can you get in my car?
[man] All right, let's go.
♪heartwarming music ♪
And if anything, she tries to hire people who are
unhireable.
Why do you feel the need to tell everybody that you talk to
that you have a-- that you have a criminal record?
Why do you have the need to tell everybody that you got outta
prison?
Like, why do you-- is that who you are today?
- Are you in prison today? - [Andrew] No.
So by telling people that, you're just making yourself a
fucking prisoner of your past!
I have a criminal record, and I'm not shameful of it.
People see these bumps in their roads and they think they're
barricades.
They're not barricades, they're just bumps.
You just gotta, like...
you know, move past it, you know?
You never talk to me about your past.
Never!
You talk about your future, you talk about your things that you
want outta life, and you talk about today.
So why is it that when you talk to other people,
you talk backwards?
Like, think about that for a second.
You gotta stop doing that, dude.
Because you're past that.
You're not Yesterday Andrew.
You're Today Andrew.
Be Today Andrew.
I don't even know where the hell I'm going.
People have said that it's kind of crazy all the people that I
take in, but it's like, how could you not do that?
Good? Happy?
[Heather VO] Family isn't just blood,
family are the people around you that you love endlessly,
and that you love unconditionally.
I have five kids.
My husband has three kids and then I have two adopted kids,
and I always knew I was gonna adopt,
so I just, um-- like, my oldest son is my cousin's son,
so we adopted him first, and then he asked me to adopt his
brother, so we went and found his brother,
so...
that was that.
Amazing, you're gonna make a request.
So like, probably next month.
Amazing.
Lovely! Awesome!
Great. [laughs]
[sawing]
There's never been a season where I couldn't tell you how it
was going as much as this one.
But today was a good day, and it's gonna continue on being a
good day, but tomorrow might get washed out.
♪tender folksy music ♪
[Ciree VO] The first and second weekend in December.
We need to have these two good weekends.
If it's raining, you know it's gonna be a shitty day.
♪
There's so many different components that come into play
that are gonna make you successful,
and a lot of those components are outta your control.
[thunder rumbles]
♪
[Little Greg VO] Sunday, the big hours are 11 to five.
And it rained 11 to five, so...
Today wasn't terrible, but we're still behind last year,
so...
It's all right, we'll make it up...
hopefully.
[Kevin VO] It was busy on Saturday.
Sunday was slow because it rained.
It was, like, incredibly slow.
♪
I think it's time to get the cup out and start panhandling.
[Ciree VO] We do this a lot:
"Well, we just need to take in this much.
We just need to do this much to average.
We just need to need to sell..." and it's a lot of, like,
"We need to do this," but...
you can only do so much, too.
Last year, what we did a lot of was...
we call it the "hot shuffle."
I tried to move around the trees as much as I could.
Like, the last week, every night they were going around.
I'm not putting these expensive trees on these locations.
I'm gonna put them where I think they are,
and I'm gonna try to sell more wholesale.
So that's just a matter of getting everybody the right mix.
But each location is different.
♪mellow tender music ♪
[George S VO] We sell what we sell to the end.
Let's see how many more we can sell.
♪
[Georgie VO] I'm quiet at nighttime,
and I watch, because I say, "Heather!
I catch anybody stealing a tree, I'm gonna fuck them up!"
[chuckles]
She said, "George..."
I mean, I used to really protect her when I first got here.
Now I've learned from her that, um,
"George, it's just a tree."
I'd say, "Fucking not on my watch, man!"
♪
[man] ♪Jingle bells, jingle bells ♪
♪Jingle all the way ♪
♪ Oh what fun it is to ride ♪
♪ In a one-horse open sleigh...♪
[George] Usually, when you have this much trees here...
it's a sign of how bad the year was.
Like, we never have this many here.
We have a trailer still outside full,
we have laying in the street, we have...
we have 'em all over here.
You know, so we try to make the best of it.
You know, life is about family and friends and love and
happiness.
I was looking for love,
and I happened to meet my soulmate.
The woman of my dreams is a reality.
So yes, I'm very happy; I found love,
I found the most amazing girl in the world,
and I'm on cloud nine.
I'm the happiest man on the planet.
Thank you! Merry Christmas!
Spasibo!
[Greg VO] Give her a kiss for working so hard to today!
[Aggie VO] Turn around, Big Greg!
Blind your eyes!
[Greg] Aww! [chuckles]
Can we do one of those-- one of those leg moves?
One of those... Come on, one!
[Aggie] We've tried the dip. We practiced it.
[Greg] Try the dip. Try the dip, one dip.
[Aggie] No? He's so embarrassed!
He's so embarrassed.
I think that coming back home was a-- a move that
I don't think a lot of 20-year-old boys would make.
He kind of had to, but he wanted to, too.
He kind of knew that
his dad was struggling.
It was a family business; he knew that.
But it's a piece of your dad.
I mean...
my dad died, but it was quick.
It was like three days gone.
I can't imagine watching.
Like, you're watching...
You don't know when...
it's the last time.
[Greg] Here we go.
Going up the escalator.
That's what I'm told to do.
♪tender music ♪
They got me the little room now.
Getting ready.
You know, it took me getting cancer to realize I should
stop and smell the roses a little bit more,
stop worrying about every little thing.
Getting excited. I like getting knocked out.
It's the best sleep you'll ever know.
[Greg VO] We're all gonna die.
But I've got the gift of knowing that and stop wasting time.
Stop thinking like you have forever.
You don't.
Nobody here does.
And it's a gift.
And we should all remember it every day.
I've gone through some stuff.
They take out your prostate, they put you on diapers and
60 days of radiation.
Off to recovery.
[Greg VO] But it hasn't been that bad, really.
Even wearing a diaper turned out to be okay.
[chuckles]
Santa's great.
There's no reason not to start enjoying life right this second,
no matter what your circumstances are.
I mean, my circumstances have gotten worse,
I guess, but I'm happier than I was.
And everybody could be as happy as you want to be.
Who said that?
Einstein, I think.
Somebody like that.
You'll be happy as you choose to be.
♪heartwarming music ♪
There's Greg behind me.
Say hi, Greg.
Hi, New York.
Hi, Mom.
[Little Greg VO] My dad was...
more sick than we thought, and he was going to Cambodia,
so I figured...
it'd be a good time to...
hang out with him for a few weeks.
- [Greg] Say hi, Greg. - Is that a video?
- [Greg] Say hi to New York. - Hi, New York.
[Greg] Hi, Mom.
Greg, look at me. Greg.
- Video? - [Greg] Hi, Mom.
Hi, Mom.
Ho, ho, ho, merry Christmas!
All the way from Angkor Wat!
Santa came to
give the good elephants their present for Christmas.
Ho, ho, ho!
What do you say? Ho, ho, ho!
[women] Ho, ho, ho!
Yeah, he's Santa all over the world.
♪
[Eric VO] Little Greg is no longer Little Greg.
He's just "Greg" to me now.
He's does as much as Big Greg did in the other years.
He's become the Greg that comes around from stand to stand.
[Greg] There's this many left?
[man] I just texted him; that's what he said.
[Greg] Greg, is this the whole operation?
- [Little Greg] Yeah. - All right.
[Greg VO] Well, Greg's been running it, really,
the whole year.
I may not be able to function in a year or two.
I might be in a hospital.
[voice wavering] The only time I cried since I got diagnosed with
cancer
is thinking I might not know what Greg looks like when he
gets older.
I might miss some of that.
[Little Greg VO] He's the best dad.
Yeah. Couldn't ask for anyone better.
[director] Does he know that you feel that way?
I think so.
I love you, Dad.
We don't say that too much, but...
I do.
And, uh...
I'm gonna keep this thing going for a while.
♪
- [George N VO] Okay, hey guys! - [man VO] Hello!
- How are you? - [George N] Good!
What can we help you find?
We're looking for a tree.
- Super last minute. - [laughing] Okay.
Never thought I'd be doing this in 50 years.
I can remember joking with Kevin Hammer the first couple of years
we were doing it, "Can you imagine-- do you think we'll be
standing on the street corner when we're 50 years old selling
trees?
No fucking way!" You know?
- [man] Ooh. - All right, sniff it out, boys.
[man] Sniff it!
[George N VO] You know, sometimes something happens,
it's like a serendipitous moment,
you go with it, and you don't know where it's going,
but...
there you are, 50 years later, and we brighten up people's
lives.
I think that's pretty goddamn amazing and cool!
[laughs]
You know, that we can do that.
Alrighty! There's your tree.
You wanna hold it?
[woman] See you next year! Thank you!
You'll see him next year anyways.
[woman] Are you out of it?
- [George N] Time to retire! - Aww.
Way to go! That's awesome!
- 50 years! - That's amazing!
Yeah.
Yeah, we're saying that's probably the last tree I'll be
selling. [chuckles] So...
- Well, congratulations! - Yeah, there you go!
- It's a special one. - It definitely is.
It absolutely is.
What, my millionth tree or something?
I'm sure it is.
♪tender music ♪
[Jane] Flip me over, I'm done.
Done.
Done this a long time.
It was great, it's still great, but...
time to pass it on.
♪
- [Jane] Bye, New York! - Goodbye, New York!
Have a Merry Christmas!
I'm getting teary...
Let's go.
We love you guys.
♪
[crying] I'm crying because we're leaving.
[laughs]
[laughing] You're crying because we're leaving?
[Jane] I know, it just dawned on me!
[George N] It just dawned on you?!
Yes!
♪ carolers singing ♪
Ho, ho, ho!
Oh my God, Santa, I've been a good girl!
[Greg] I know!
[laughs]
Sure, sure.
Ho, ho, ho!
- Thank you. - [Greg] My pleasure.
- [woman] Merry Christmas - Ho, ho, ho!
There's a special going on:
free...
real mistletoe in that tin box.
That came right off the top of a tree in Oregon,
by the cutest people in the world.
- Aw, thanks! - [chuckles]
- [man] Thank very much. - Merry Christmas!
Free candy cane too. You want a candy cane?
[Heather VO] I've never been in a situation where somebody
doesn't leave with a tree over like a couple of dollars.
Like, a business owner is just who I am,
you know, my shell.
Like, my inner person, I'm a human.
It's not gonna make or break me, you know,
to give somebody a tree, but it might make or break their
spirit, so I don't wanna be held responsible for breaking
somebody's spirit.
Oh, come on, let's go.
Let's go, let's go.
Come on, Jasper.
Get over here, Mike. Get this side.
Good luck tonight, Santa!
Don't work too hard.
Ho, ho, ho!
I gotta work all night.
It's a long night for Santa.
♪ choir singing ♪
It's Christmas morning!
How's my beautiful son doing?
Greg, gimme a "Merry Christmas, will you?"
[groaning] Merry Christmas.
[Greg, in singsong] Merry Christmas.
[Little Greg] Oh God!
[chuckling] Merry Christmas.
[Heather VO] From my family to yours:
Merry Christmas!
- Merry Christmas! - [laughs]
You filthy animal!
♪mellow Christmas music ♪
Merry Christmas!
Welcome to our house!
Come on in!
♪
To Karen, love George!
[woman] Oh my God, it's a wedding ring.
[Karen] Holy shit.
[George S, kissing] I love you. I love you too.
[Karen] Okay, that's all. Okay, good.
[whispering] I love you too.
[George S, whispering] I want to take that next step with you.
I'm really happy with how well our succession will go because
we have such competent people, competent successors.
[Ciree VO] So, I'll be the old boss next year.
[Greg] Ugh, I gotta get socks.
All right, son.
The time has finally come.
You get to wear...
the really good...
- the really special Santa hat. - I have my hat.
Wear it with pride.
Lead-- lead the group.
Remember, you're the leader.
♪
Your head is just massive.
[Ciree VO] It's not just a business.
It's a family, really.
It is a family.
We are like a small little tree family.
Each of us are like the aunts and uncles over there,
and then we have our own kids.
[Heather VO] We are a group.
We do have a lot in common.
We don't spend enough time together,
and it's a shame.
[Greg VO] I asked Santa this year for medical health.
I truly believe if you ask Santa from your heart for what you
need, what you want, Santa will give it to you.
♪
[George S] We all should get together once a year
and hang out.
[George N] One of you gotta invite Kevin Hammer!
[laughter]
[Heather VO] We've spent the past 40 days
giving people all this joy and being part of these wonderful
moments of people's lives.
[child] Wow.
[Heather VO] Every year, like, I do this,
it is a shot in the dark, but it's like nothing else.
We get to watch families grow and,
you know, hear about their stories every year.
Those are the most valuable moments in life.
[Greg VO] It's not about the season.
It's about you see the little kid light up next to his dad
getting the tree.
[George N VO] The Christmas tree is a talisman of ancient power
that brings together people and families that gather around it
to celebrate togetherness.
It's powerful, especially here in the gray of New York City.
We bring all this green energy.
[Jane VO] We wouldn't sell trees anywhere else but New York.
[Kevin VO] From the bottom of my heart,
I don't like New York City,
I love New York City.
It's New York!
It's home!
They're angels...
if there's such a thing.
[George S VO] Christmas trees, it's not about you,
because you're not just selling a product,
you're selling moments in time.
♪
[Heather VO] Christmas is
believing in something that you can't see.
[Greg VO] And that's the spirit.
Santa is a frame of mind.
You can do it every day.
No question in my mind.
[sighs]
The day after Christmas, you start again.
♪rock version of "Rocking Around the Christmas Tree"♪
♪Rocking around Christmas tree ♪
♪At the Christmas party hop ♪
♪Mistletoe hung where you can see ♪
♪Every couple tries to stop ♪
♪Rockin' around the Christmas tree ♪
♪Let the Christmas spirit ring ♪
♪Later we'll have some pumpkin pie ♪
♪And we'll do some caroling ♪
♪You will get a sentimental feeling when you hear ♪
♪Voices singing, let's be jolly ♪
♪Deck the halls with boughs of holly ♪
♪
♪Rockin' around the Christmas tree ♪
♪Have a happy holiday ♪
♪Everyone dancin' merrily ♪
♪In the new old-fashioned way ♪
♪Rockin' around the Christmas tree ♪
♪Let the Christmas spirit ring ♪
♪Later we'll have some pumpkin pie ♪
♪And we'll do some caroling ♪
♪You will get a sentimental feeling when you hear ♪
♪Voices singing, let's be jolly ♪
♪Deck the halls with boughs of holly ♪
♪
♪You will get a sentimental feeling when you hear ♪
♪Voices singing, let's be jolly ♪
♪Deck the halls with boughs of holly ♪
♪Rockin' around the Christmas tree ♪
♪Have a happy holiday ♪
♪Everyone dancin' merrily...♪