Davidson, Phillips families share holiday tree tradition
By TIM GULLA Ledger Staff Writer tim@gaffneyleder.com

With a quick jerk and brute strength, Eddie Davidson hoists a Christmas tree Wednesday afternoon onto a stand at his family's Christmas tree sales lot on Highway 11.

Wrestling with a 10-foot Frazier fir, Eddie Davidson smiled after winning the battle and getting the tree perfectly upright on a stand.

Luckily, though, he had a lot of help to get the other 314 trees in similar order.

For the past six years, Davidson and his extended family have lived for the annual ritual of spreading Christmas cheer at The Tree Lot, the name of their roadside business on Highway 11 in Gaffney.

Founded by Davidson and Timmy and Eckles Phillips, the business' work crew includes the founders' sons, daughters, nephews and nieces. Setting up on the day before Thanksgiving is a tradition.

While drought has stricken much of the Carolinas, withering trees and browning grass, the plump and juicy Frazier firs at the stand came from a wholesaler in the more tree-friendly mountains of Newland, N.C.

Prices have remained unchanged since the business first opened. A five-foot tree still costs $35. A relatively massive 13-footer, likely destined for a home with cathedral ceilings, will cost $150.

While any business is formed to make a profit, the founders say they earn a lot just from their interaction with friends and acquaintances who come back each year.

"You get a chance to talk to folks in and around the community," Davidson said.

For Timmy Phillips, the best parts of running the business are the children who come by and seeing how much Christmas means to people.

He recalled being visited a few years ago by a waitress from a local restaurant who scraped together all of her tips to buy a tree for a destitute family. Moved by the experience, he sold her a tree below cost.

"That's the part that makes it worth it," he said.

Overestimating demand in their first year of business, Davidson conceded 500 was too many. "That was a mistake," he said as some trees went unsold.

Settling on about 300 as the perfect number, the family members expect to be sold out by mid-December.