Farm owner and Christmas tree connoisseur Bryan Holler knows exactly what makes a prizewinning tree.

Judges, he said, look for three main qualities, amongst many — color, shape and density — but growing a standout tree also depends on patience and forces beyond any farmer’s control, from extreme weather to hungry animals. Holler and his co-owner Dan Taylor, who have been in the industry for over 30 years, know this all too well.

The duo, who first got their start in 1996 when they opened their own farms, are the proteges of Eric and Gloria Sundback who operated their own Christmas tree business for over 40 years in West Virginia as Sundback Trees. Today, Dan and Bryan Trees is one of just four Christmas tree vendors in the District, drawing customers ranging from lawmakers to longtime families across D.C., Maryland and its farm in Shepherdstown, West Virginia.

“Years of cheering and learning the ropes from Eric and Gloria Sundback and finally, I was able to rent a farm, plant my own trees and then finally purchase the farms,” he said.

The Sundbacks — who sold trees to George H.W. Bush and Barbara Bush, the Obamas and Senator Edward Kennedy — passed the lots they once sold out of in a lot near the National Cathedral in D.C. and another in Chevy Chase, Maryland, to Dan and Bryan Trees. Holler’s journey in the tree business began, he said, when he started working for Sundback Trees as a part-time summer job in 1982.

After learning the ropes from the Sundbacks, he said the duo rented a farm, where they were able to plant and sell their own trees, which eventually allowed them to buy the West Virginia farm they had previously rented.

The process of growing a Christmas tree takes a lot of time and work to grow, Holler said. The process starts in the fall, when they clean and prepare the fields that they had last harvested from to replant in the spring. By the time the spring rolls around, they mark off the fields to plant and then take one to two weeks to plant the trees in the field.

Then, they put down fertilizer, herbicides and mow the growing grass to prevent it from growing around the trees. By the time June rolls around, Holler said he shears the trees that are ready to be sold, which he continues to do until it’s time to cut and sell them in the winter.

“You have the whole thing of what you’re going to keep for next year, what’s going to be sold and how many trucks you’re going to be loaded and what we’re going to do here in the city, what we need,” Holler said. 

He said customers in recent years have begun buying their trees earlier, making the weekend after Thanksgiving and the one that follows the farm’s busiest stretch. As a result, cutting enough trees to meet demand can be tricky, he said, because they try not to harvest them too far in advance in order to keep them as healthy as possible.

Holler said Fraser firs have been the tree of choice to customers due to its shape and smell, but they are difficult to grow because the soil has to be somewhat wet but not too wet, and the weather cannot be too hot, or they will burn.

“There’s several other types of trees, but the Fraser Fir is probably the most popular for us and many others,” Holler said. 

He said Dan and Bryan Trees have continued selling trees to some politicians since inheriting the Sunback’s lot near the National Cathedral.

“They come to us and kind of discreetly get a tree and go about their way,” he said.

Holler said he’s seen his trees displayed across the District with no mention of where they came from, but he still feels pride in knowing they’re his. 

“It’s kind of a pat on the back that you did the job well,” he said.

Based in the farm in West Virginia, Abigail Taylor — Dan Taylor’s daughter — said she has been worked at the business’ home base as long as she can remember, with the earliest memories of starting to help her father out with work at 12 years old. Now, in addition to working a full-time job, Taylor said she sells trees during the Christmas season.

She said some families come every year “religiously” to pick up their trees, and she watches babies grow up to young adults, cutting down the trees themselves, which she said is a “full-circle” moment from the memories she has shared with her father. 

“It’s something I shared with my dad because I was always up at the farm with him when I was growing up,” Taylor said. “And now it’s watching all these kids gonna do the same kind of stuff.”

She said Dan and Bryan’s Trees has gained accolades, being recognized for their prize-winning trees over the years through competing in competitions, including one in Elkins, West Virginia, where they have won the Queen’s Choice and Grand Champion multiple times. But, Taylor said, the competitions that help the business get to the national championships — where winners get their tree placed in the Blue Room of the White House — happen at the state competitions.

She said they have competed at Maryland’s state competition multiple times, leading them to the National Championships where they won in 2009 and 2020. In 2009 when she was in Kindergarten, Taylor said she went to the White House for the presentation of the tree, where the tree is brought around in a horse and carriage and is presented to the First Lady. 

She said the experience was one of her “core memories” because then-First Lady Michelle Obama approached her, saying she had remembered seeing her earlier that day.

“She came over, she got on her knees in front of me, and she was like, ‘I remember you, your name’s Abby,’” Taylor said. “It was one of the most special things, I was like, it’s just so cool. It’s someone so famous, so big in the country.”

In her 2020 visit to the White House, Taylor said despite having to get tested for COVID-19 in the security area, she was still able to go on an extensive tour of the space. As a part of earning the national champion tree award, the group had tea and cookies with First Lady Melania Trump. 

She said the farm opens for the season the Saturday after Thanksgiving and feels like Black Friday to her, with customers lined up an hour before opening at 9 a.m. On the opening day this year, she said 40 people were lined up waiting for her to let them go into the field and pick up their trees.

“Granted, the last two years, obviously, we’ve had the shortest amount of time possible between Thanksgiving and Christmas, so people are really eager to get their trees, but it’s crazy that day is like such a blur,” Taylor said.