Choose and cut a tree from America's Christmas tree capital

The official White House Christmas tree has been from North Carolina 13 times — the most of any state since 1961. This year’s tree is from Newland in Avery County. Since 1966, the National Christmas Tree Association has donated its Grand Champion tree to be the White House Christmas tree. Choosing your own Christmas tree from a tree farm is a popular and memorable holiday experience for families visiting North Carolina. Now, more families are making a vacation of it. The state offers more than 70 Christmas tree farms and many offer cabins for overnight stays as well as Christmas-themed crafts and gifts, hot cocoa or cider, cookies, hayrides, and other activities as well as spectacular views. In a typical year, North Carolina harvests around 5 million trees at 1,600 tree farms, making it the most prolific tree-producing state in the east.