By Kristi Palma
December 7, 2018
This time of year, you could walk through a farm’s rows of trees, searching for your perfect Fraser fir as holiday songs blast and bundled-up families peruse nearby. Or you could let a Boston-based company do all of the leg work for you.Christmas Tree for Me, owned by engaged couple Jeff Feccia and Bridget Kinney, aims to simplify the way people shop for trees. Customers order their trees online, and the company delivers them and sets them up. It also hosts Christmas tree pop-up shops in residential building lobbies across Boston. Homemade wreaths, made by Kinney, and tree accessories such as lights and stands, are available for sale online and at the pop-up shops as well.
Feccia said, based on sales so far, he expects to sell 300 Christmas trees this holiday season, up from 50 last year.
“Literally, convenience, convenience, convenience,” he said of why he thinks his company is growing. “That’s what everyone is about today. People are so busy today.”
Christmas Tree for Me trees, which come from Canada this year, cost $74 to $239, depending on size and type. Delivery is included in that cost for city customers, while those who live more than three miles outside of the city pay a $3-per-mile delivery fee.
The price of the trees also includes set up and clean up — both pre- and post-Christmas. The company returns after the holidays to haul the trees away and recycle them.
“Every time I install a tree, I’m literally on my hands and knees in someone’s house sweeping up needles,” Feccia said. “That’s a convenience factor, and people are willing to pay for that.”
During the Christmas tree pop-up events, Feccia takes 20 to 30 variously sized trees to a Boston residential building’s lobby. The management teams at some buildings up the festive factor by adding live music, wine and appetizers, and sometimes even a hot cocoa bar, Feccia said. Christmas Tree for Me will host five more pop-ups in December, at spots like The Kensington in downtown Boston and Ink Block in the South End.
Picture this, said Feccia: “You walk home from work, you open the door [to your building], Christmas music is playing, you smell the aroma of fresh Christmas pine, you see neighbors, and you literally just come up to us and say, ‘OK, I’ll take this tree, this stand, two boxes of lights, a thing of fertilizer, and I live in unit 100.'”
Feccia said his team then can set up a tree inside a residence in as little as 10 minutes.