MILLBROOK — While others were grabbing deals at Black Friday sales, the Cruise family of Dover Plains was at Evergreen Farm on Tower Hill Road continuing a 10-year tradition of picking out their Christmas tree the day right after Thanksgiving.
They weren’t the only ones — Evergreen Christmas Tree Farm owner Richard Phillipps said he usually sells out after just one or two weekends.
Philipps has between 3,000 and 4,000 trees on his property, but only about 400 to 500 are mature enough to sell in any given year.
Zach Elder, right, holds on to a Christmas Tree while his father, Josh, both of Mt. Kisco, New York, cuts the tree down with a handsaw. Photo by Nathan Miller
The demand for Christmas trees has stayed steady, but Philipps said farmers face other challenges that have caused many to shutter operations in recent years.
“The original people, like me, they get old,” Philipps said. “The youngsters don’t want to take over the business and they sell the land. It’s typical of what happens to farmers in general.”
Some families have had to change their traditions, like the Costas family of North Salem in Westchester, New York. They came to Evergreen for the first time last year after 20 years of going to a tree farm that closed.
The Costas family of North Salem, New York, working together to fell their Christmas tree at Evergreen Farm on Friday, Nov. 28. They started coming to Evergreen farm last year because their typical tree farm of the prior 20 years closed permanently.Photo by Nathan Miller
Closures of tree farms like Fabulous Firs in Poughkeepsie have driven more customers to Evergreen Farm. The increased demand at Evergreen creates some strain for Philipps. “It’s always difficult, because customers count on us to stay open,” he said.
Despite the strain, Philipps said it’s rewarding to be a part of families’ holiday traditions, especially the longstanding ones.
“We’ve had the same people coming here for 30 years,” Philipps said. He and his wife, Wendy, said they’ve watched children and families grow up to bring multiple generations through the farm every year.
Evergreen Farms is one of three tree farms in northeast Dutchess County. Other options include Abel's Trees in Verbank and Murphy Crest Farms on Depot Hill Road in Amenia.
On Dec. 11, at 6:30 p.m., at the White Hart Inn in Salisbury, Day and Weitzman will share their memories in a conversation moderated by noted designer Matthew Patrick Smyth. The event is organized by Oblong Books and the Scoville Library.
Fresh home from her exhibition and book signing in Paris, Day sat in her Salisbury aerie high above the distant hills, her daughter’s black cat on her lap. She told the story of “Les Flashs d’Anne,” and the kismet that spurred its evolution.
In 2024, afterlearning that Day had worked with Guibert in New York and Paris, Weitzman — the author of numerous books about Guibert —saw her salvaged images, sought her out and announced, “We must do a book together.”
Weitzman writes in the book’s prologue, “This book is the dreamlike, uncanny result of that serendipitous encounter with a remarkable woman.”
Cover of “Les Flashs d’Anne”Jennifer Almquist
During the 1980s, Day was a working photographer living on Fifth Avenue. A friend, the editor of Le Monde, asked whether Guibert, on his maiden voyage to New York, could stay with her. “I remember it was a cold night when Hervé showed up at my door,” she said.“His flight had just gotten in from Paris and he had this big box of Guerlain perfume. It was wrapped in beautiful pink paper. Within four minutes, we were friends.”
Thus began a whirlwind collaboration that took them from Manhattan, where they interviewed André Kertész, to Paris where they dined with Henri Cartier-Bresson and Duane Michals, and on to interviews with Isabelle Huppert, Gina Lollobrigida, designer Madeleine Castaing, Orson Welles and other luminaries of that time.
Day never saw Guibert after 1983. “Hervé got AIDS in the late ’80s and was quite militant. He now has a following of young people,” Day saidwistfully. During his final days, Guibert wrote five books based on his existential journey.
Orson Welles, top, and Hervé Guibert and André Kertész by Anne DayJennifer Almquist
Day recalled the devastating house fire in which her family tragically lost their friend Maria Paz Reyes and their dog. Day survived by jumping from the second story. A lifetime of images, negatives and slides were lost or damaged. “To lose pictures is like losing friends. Everything was piled into metal file cabinets in my studio. All my negatives and slides were packed in tight. The fire started at the farthest point from there as possible. It was the only thing that wasn’t destroyed— every other single thing was gone. Nothing left. It was raining, so my friend Christopher covered everything with a tarp. The fabulous part of this story is how much help I had from my town, which gave me the empty firehouse to lay out everything to dry. Friends came from near and far to help. Some days I had ten volunteers, and it went on for a month, which gave me something to move forward with. It was so tragic and awful.”
Self-portrait, New York City, 1981by Anne DayJennifer Almquist
A veteran photojournalist, portrait, wedding, and architectural photographer, Day created images for five books featuring the architecture of the Library of Congress, the U.S. Capitol, and the New York Public Library. She covered events in Cuba, Haiti and South Africa, where she took an iconic image of Nelson Mandela emerging from his prison cell. Her commissioned images of four Presidential Inaugurations are featured in the Smithsonian. Her work has appeared in Newsweek, Time, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Fortune, Paris Match and Vogue. She was the editor of Compass at the Lakeville Journal and The Millerton News.
Currently, she enjoys shooting digital photographs of nature. “I am interested in migration, large groups of birds and insects. I’ve been to New Mexico to photograph monarchs, Nebraska to photograph Sandhill cranes, and Ireland to photograph a murmuration of starlings.”
Day summed up her life: “Things just happened to me.”
Tickets to the event at The White Hart Inn on Dec. 11 are available at oblongbooks.com
