This Queens native runs some of the largest
Christmas tree stands in New York City
BY HAEVEN GIBBONS
For the past 38 years, Greg’s
Trees has been providing New
Yorkers with Christmas trees.
College Point native Greg
Walsh started selling trees
from a small stand on the street
corner in Brooklyn. Now, he
runs some of the largest tree
stands in New York City.
“I love doing it,” Walsh said.
“I love meeting the families
and the kids coming in; they
are so excited. We try to make
every sale a fun experience and
we work hard for it.”
Walsh’s five unique stands,
located throughout the city,
provide much more than
Christmas trees. His stands
feature crafts, hand-painted
Christmas cut-outs for photoops,
sleds, wooden reindeer,
visits from Santa and holiday
markets with custom wreaths,
decorations, centerpieces, ornaments,
lights and tree toppers.
“Nobody’s got what we’ve
got in New York,” said Eric
Kang, one of Walsh’s crew
members who helps manage
the tree stands and sell trees.
But before Walsh started
selling trees in the winter, he
was selling fruit at 71st and
Broadway in the middle of the
summer.
Nineteen-year-old Walsh
started selling fruit over the
summer after his freshman
year at the State University of
New York at New Paltz. When
the summer was over, he went
back to school for one semester,
before dropping out 25 credits
into his business degree.
He sold fruit full-time for
the next 12 years.
The heat rising off the city
streets during the Manhattan
summer pushes most people
inside. But not Walsh. He didn’t
mind the heat or waking up before
dawn to unload the trucks
of fruit.
“Not a minute of that entire
12 years did I wish the day was
quicker,” Walsh said. “I wished
that it was longer. I enjoyed every
minute of it, and it was brutal
work.”
Three years into selling
fruit in the summer and pumpkins
in the fall, Walsh decided
to sell Christmas trees come
November.
During that first season,
in 1983, Walsh sold trees with
his partners from two “winky
dinky little stands” in Brooklyn
and Queens, he said. But
just four years later, they were
running eight stands. In 1995
Walsh went back to school to
become a school teacher and
taught special education classes
to 18- and 19-year-olds. For 10
years he only ran one stand, but
he never stopped selling trees.
This year, Walsh has a new
stand at Domino Park in Williamsburg,
where 2,000 trees
will fill the parking lot by Friday,
making it one of Walsh’s
largest tree stands ever. On
Dec. 5, there will be a tree lighting
of a 20-foot tree and visits
from Santa and other holiday
characters.
“We’re doing more than
we’ve ever done, and I think
people are going to like it,”
Walsh said. “We have great
trees, and it’s really going to be
something special.”
Walsh sells balsam, fraser,
silver, nordmann and noble
trees. A chalkboard at the
tree stand in Domino Park describes
the different types of
trees. The balsam is traditional
and fragrant while the fraser
is the most popular and the silver
is the “next big thing.”
Walsh is the go-to treeman.
But for a few days out of
the year, he doubles as Santa
TIMESLEDGER | Q 2 NS.COM | DEC. 3 - DEC. 9, 2021
Claus.
On some of the busiest days
of the year for Christmas tree
sales, Walsh isn’t in his truck
driving from stand to stand to
check on his crew. He is sitting
in a wooden sleigh, chanting,
“Ho, ho, ho.”
“I put the Santa suit on and
get in the sled and everything
just runs,” Walsh said.
In past years, Walsh always
tried to have Santa come to his
stands. One year, the hired
Santa didn’t show up. Everyone
looked at Walsh whose long
white beard and jolly smile
only meant one thing. Ever
since, Walsh has grown out his
beard for the Christmas tree
season so he can dress as St.
Nick and entertain the crowds
who gather at his stands.
The crew
Walsh is a one man company
until the season begins. He
visits tree farms in Quebec, the
Blue Ridge Mountains, Washington
State and Oregon to tag
trees and look at fields. Then
he finds the truckers.
Five trailer loads of trees
arrived in the city this week to
deliver Walsh’s trees.
The Domino Park stand in
Williamsburg opened on Nov.
17. The stands on the Lower
East Side at ABC Playground,
Park Slope at Greenwood Beer
Garden, McCarren Park and
at The Springs in Greenpoint
opened on Nov. 24.
The Domino Park stand is
open until midnight. The other
four stands are open 24/7.
Walsh has a crew of people
from across the United States
and even Canada who come to
New York to help him set up
and manage the stands. Many
of the members come back year
after year.
“It’s always like a reunion
every time we come back,” said
crew member Shaun Nakamine.
Nakamine has helped
Walsh sell trees at his stands
for four years. He has been
staying in a trailer at the Domino
Park tree stand since Nov.
15 to get the trees, tents, decorations,
Christmas cut-outs,
lights and holiday market set
up. Nakamine will stay in the
trailer until Christmas Eve
along with two other crew
members.
“It’s a side gig that’s very
different from a normal job,”
Nakamine said. “It’s a month
of living in a new place and
a little adventure in the city
without having the same hustle
and bustle.”
Two thin mattresses rest on
top of cots, one lays on the floor.
Cold pizza sits in a box on the
counter. Christmas lights line
the window. The trailer doesn’t
have any running water. At
each tree stand location, Walsh
has a group of three to four people
who camp in trailers like
this one all season, ready to
make a sale early in the morning
or even in the middle of the
night.
The crew likes to call it “urban
camping.”
Nakamine said it’s better to
be on site because they are so
busy. The crew normally sells
over 100 trees a day. They deliver
trees by bike and truck to
people’s homes. Nakamine has
biked over a mile to deliver a
tree.
In another trailer at the
Domino Park stand, cardboard
boxes filled with snowdusted
pine cones and gold,
silver and red ornaments are
stacked floor-to-ceiling. Alfiya
Amirova works at a table
in the corner. She sticks thin
white tree branches into a sage
green wreath and arranges the
pine cones and berries around
its border. She’s precise and
quick, knowing exactly where
the next decoration will go.
Amirova is a freelance florist
who has been making custom
holiday wreaths for Greg’s
Trees for over a decade. She’s
known Walsh for 15 years and
used to make flower arrangements
for him on Valentines
Day, Mother’s Day and Easter.
The two met in Walsh’s hometown
of College Point, Queens,
at Amirova’s flower stand.
“Greg asked me if I could do
Christmas. I said, ‘Of course
I can do Christmas; I can do
anything,’” Amirova said. “It’s
easy if you have an understanding
of color and composition.”
Amirova spends hours
creating each wreath to make
them “perfect,” she said. She
said she loves working on the
wreaths because her work
makes people happy.
Across the lot, other crew
members stack trees, lights
and tools into a U-Haul to take
to the other tree stands.
“Load it up boys,” Eric Kang
yells to the crew members.
Kang is Walsh’s right-hand
man and helps oversee the
crew.
“I try to do things the way
I would see Greg would want
them done. He’s generous. He’s
funny. He’s one of a kind. He’s
Santa Claus,” Kang said.
Greg Walsh, owner of Greg’s Trees, at his Domino Park tree stand location where thousands of trees
will be on sale for the holiday season.
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