When Quebec brings out the holiday magic

The scent of fresh pine needles, branches gently unfolding in the living room, a little star at the top: for many families, Christmas truly begins when the tree enters the house. Although it now seems inseparable from the holiday season, the Christmas tree is a tradition imported from Europe in the 19th century that found fertile ground in Quebec.

Originally, it was mainly Germanic communities that had the custom of decorating a tree at Christmas. The fashion then spread to Victorian England with Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, and then crossed the Atlantic. In Quebec, the Christmas tree became popular at the turn of the 20th century, first in wealthier homes, then in almost every home in the province.

Very quickly, this seasonal custom had an unexpected effect: it created an economy based on natural trees. The first trees were often cut down by hand, with fathers going into the forest to find a conifer or farms supplementing their income by selling a few trees, but by the 1930s, some families had made it their specialty. Today, there are hundreds of producers across Quebec, many of whom have been perpetuating family know-how for three or four generations.

At Jean-Talon Market, for example, the Filion family is one of those familiar faces in December. Lionel Filion began selling carefully trimmed Christmas trees at the market in 1978. Behind every tree sold are months of preparation, because a Christmas tree often takes between 8 and 10 years to reach the desired size.

But the story of Quebec's Christmas trees doesn't stop at the province's borders. Thanks to the exceptional quality of our conifers, particularly balsam firs and Fraser firs, the province has become a leading exporter to the United States. For several years, a merchant at the Montreal Public Markets, François, aka the “Treeman,” even had New York City as a customer. Every December, entire shipments of Quebec fir trees were sent to decorate living rooms in Manhattan and Brooklyn. That's how much our forest has become part of the American Christmas imagination.

Even today, several producers ship their trees to the United States, and some specialize in high-end markets. Over time, Quebec has become the largest seller of Christmas trees in the country.

Essentially, every Quebec Christmas tree tells the same story: that of a tradition from elsewhere, adopted by our families and become a source of local pride. Whether purchased at one of Montreal's public markets, picked from a family farm, or shipped to a major American city, the tree retains its magic. It is a shared memory, passed down from generation to generation, with the sweet smell of pine resin, bringing young and old together in the spirit of the holidays.

A text by Martin Landry, historian