Cut your own Charlie Brown Christmas Tree

Posted On: November 21, 2024

Enjoy a green Christmas by cutting your own tree at Lyonia Preserve in Deltona. You'll not only get a unique tree, you'll help maintain habitat for Florida scrub jays.

Residents can select their favorite sand pines from 9 to 10:30 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 14. Bring loppers, a hand saw, and gloves to remove sand pines from the scrub habitat of Lyonia Preserve. On this day only, you can take a sand pine home and have your own Charlie Brown tree. You will be helping the scrub jays by removing a tree that can become overgrown and provide perches for predators.

While they are not traditional Christmas trees, sand pines have been popular among Floridians for decades. These native trees have been likened to Charlie Brown Christmas trees because they're sparse and sometimes lopsided. Two or three can be tied together to make a fuller tree, and many people decorate them and leave them outside for wildlife. Most of the trees are 4 to 5 feet tall, but they can grow up to 20 feet.

Reservations are required; call 386-789-7207, ext. 21028. Meet at Lyonia Environmental Center, 2150 Eustace Ave., Deltona.

Lyonia Preserve, adjacent to the Deltona Regional Library at 2150 Eustace Ave., is a 360-acre scrub habitat that has three nature trails. Staff and volunteers routinely remove overgrown sand pines to create bare sand areas with low-growing vegetation preferred by the Florida scrub jays and gopher tortoises that live at Lyonia Preserve.