Let the Holidays begin!

The Rocks Estate opens for the Christmas tree season November 19^th. We’ll be open daily (except for Thanksgiving Day) through Christmas Eve, from 10 a.m.-4 p.m.

Visitors may meander the farm in search of the perfect Christmas tree to cut or select a pre-cut tree from our retail lot. And if you visited The Rocks earlier this fall to tag a tree, you’re welcome to return now to cut your Christmas tree and bring it home for trimming.

While you’re here, we invite you to enjoy a horse-drawn wagon ride, browse the selection of wonderful gifts and holiday decorations in our shop, and enjoy a cup of cocoa, roasted marshmallows at our marshmallow pit, and freshly popped corn from Kingdom Kernels Kettlecorn Company. Our wreath makers have been hard at work creating and decorating our fresh evergreen wreaths, and we also offer kissing balls and garland for decking the halls in style!

As always, our Christmas trees, holiday wreaths, gifts and ornaments are available at The Rocks and through our online shop. We have everything you need to Deck the Halls this holiday season!

Stay awhile with our Christmas Memory Package

Take a break from all the hustle and bustle of the holidays with our Christmas Memory Package. With a stay at one of the area’s quaint inns or comfortable hotels, a horse-drawn wagon ride through the historic Rocks Estate property, http://therocks.org/history.php and a beautiful farm fresh Christmas tree to bring home, the Christmas Memory Package is a wonderful way to get into the holiday spirit, whether you’re looking for a family celebration or an intimate mountain getaway.

Learn More With Our Mobile Tour

New this season is The Rocks Mobile Tour – combining cutting edge technology with holiday tradition! Our tour uses Quick Response Codes (QR Codes) to relay information about the fascinating history of The Rocks, wildlife habitat and forest management efforts at the property (which serves as the North Country Conservation and Education Center for the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests), and the different types of Christmas trees we grow here.

Simply use your smart phone to snap a photo of the mobile tag at each of the 13 stops along the tour, and you’ll have access to historic photographs and staff knowledge right at your fingertips!

To find out more about what’s happening at The Rocks NOW, check out our YouTube videos and "like" us on Facebook.

Delivering holiday cheer, one Christmas tree at a time

The Rocks Estate will again support Trees for Troops this holiday season. Part of the Christmas Spirit Foundation, Trees for Troops delivers some 17,000 farm fresh Christmas trees to American military personnel and their families each year.

This year, Trees for Troops will deliver its 100,000^th Christmas tree!

The Rocks gives 20 trees to Trees for Troops each year and garners sponsorships from local businesses for an additional 100 Christmas trees. We are one of about 700 Christmas tree farms throughout the country that supports the Trees for Troops mission. Last year Trees for Troops delivered 17,224 trees to 59 military bases, including seven bases overseas.

Beyond donating trees to the program and getting other area businesses involved, The Rocks also sells festive Birch Deer at our shop and at Harman’s Cheese & Country Store in Sugar Hill to raise funds for Trees for Troops.

The fifth grade students at Bethlehem Elementary School help our local efforts each year by writing notes to go on the trees and loading them into the FedEx truck to be shipped to military families.

Trees for Troops is a community effort that extends from our corner of New Hampshire across the country and far beyond. We see it as a way to spread a little holiday cheer – one Christmas tree at a time – and to thank the men and women in our country’s armed services, who often spend the holidays away from home and family.

Merry Christmas to all, whether you’re close to home or far away.

Mobile Tour Opens at The Rocks

There’s a new way to explore The Rocks Estate! Our Mobile Tour of the 1,400-acre property uses Quick Response (QR codes), allowing visitors to pull up information about some of the Estate’s historic buildings, the different types of Christmas trees we grow here, and the Forest Society’s wildlife habitat and forest management efforts at The Rocks.

Using their smart phones to snap a photo of the QR code (they look like abstract black and white designs) on each sign of the Mobile Tour, visitors to The Rocks are able to access historic photos of the Estate. Some of the codes also share knowledge from The Rocks’ staff about the various types of Christmas trees, helping visitors to determine which type of tree is best for them! There are 13 signs on the Mobile Tour.

“It’s a really fun and easy way for visitors to learn about The Rocks, whether they’re here to select a Christmas tree, visiting our Maple Experience museum, or just exploring our trail network,” said Manley. “History is very important to us at The Rocks, but we try to be a little bit cutting edge, too.”

Online shopping - farm fresh trees, wreaths and more!

At The Rocks Estate, Christmas is always on our minds. If the holidays are on your mind, too, we invite you to let the season begin – by browsing our online shop.

We’re already accepting orders on farm fresh Christmas trees, handmade wreaths, and everything else you’ll need to deck the halls this holiday season, from ornaments and fragrant garland to tree stands and wreath hangers. Order your beautiful farm grown Christmas tree now, and we’ll deliver it whenever you wish, from mid-November to mid-December.

We’ve recently redesigned our online shop to make it easier than ever to place your order for the holidays. Our new shop features a streamlined checkout process, wish list feature, and additional shipping options. And for all you smart phone and tablet users, we’ve added a mobile shopping option, too.

To see one of our wreath makers at work, visit The Rocks YouTube page for a wreath making video. You’ll also be able to watch Rocks Estate manager Nigel Manley tag trees in the field to prepare for mail order shipments.

The Rocks is also open weekends from now through October 16^th for folks who’d like to visit the farm in person to tag a tree now and return closer to Christmas to harvest that tree. We open for the regular Christmas tree season November 19^th.

We hope to see you – online or at the farm – this holiday season!

Tag-your-tree at The Rocks Estate

Autumn is a beautiful time to visit The Rocks Estate! This fall, for the first time in many years, The Rocks will be open for tree tagging weekends from September 24 through October 16 – the peak of fall foliage season. Christmas tree shoppers are welcome to roam our fields to find the perfect tree for holiday trimming, then return any day between November 19 and December 24 to claim and cut your tagged tree. Bring ribbons and ornaments to tag a tree in your own unique style.

To see how the staff at The Rocks tags trees for mail order sales, check out our latest YouTube video.

Tag-your-tree hours are 10 a.m.-3:30 p.m. During that time, our Marketplace at The Rocks and the farm store will also be open for early holiday shopping. The Marketplace features items from various New England artisans, as well as Fair Trade items, from pet goods and ornaments to jewelry and home goods. The Rocks farm store is filled with local syrup, produced from sugar maples on the property, along with jams and jellies, Rocks t-shirts and mugs, ornaments and decorations. The store also sells birch deer, with proceeds going to the Trees for Troops program, and pottery from local artisan Joan Hannah.

While you’re looking for that perfect Christmas tree, you might also check out the New Hampshire Maple Experience museum, located in one of many carefully restored buildings at The Rocks. The self-guided Maple Tour leads visitors through wooded trails to the museum, where you may take a virtual tour of the sugaring process in The Rocks sugar house, then visit the adjacent museum for hands-on learning about the history and evolution of making maple syrup and sugar.

Also new at The Rocks this year is our Mobi Tag tour. Using your smart phone, you may scan any of about a dozen Tags located around the Estate to learn about the different types of Christmas trees we grow – and which one is right for your family – as well as some of the fascinating history of The Rocks Estate.

We hope to see you this fall!

Learning New Tricks

Rocks Estate Manager Nigel Manley attended his 15th National Christmas Tree Association conference last month, gleaning information on the latest tricks of the Christmas tree growing trade. Nigel, who is the NCTA director for the New Hampshire-Vermont Christmas Tree Association, was one of more than 400 Christmas tree growers from around the United States, Canada, Mexico, and England to attend the convention in Ohio.

Among the tidbits he picked up from this year’s convention – which he shares with his NH-Vermont associates – were ways to use social media and other new technology to boost marketing efforts, the latest news on the national Trees for Troops program, and information on growing the increasingly popular West Virginia Balsam (also known as the Canaan Fir).

“Only a few farmers from New Hampshire and Vermont are able to attend the national convention, so my role is to bring home the latest techniques for everything from pest control to marketing to share with our member farmers,” said Manley. “The information shared at the convention is important to our local Christmas tree growers. The impact for our local growers learning about these things is huge.”

Cutting Boughs for Christmas

Using evergreen boughs is a great decorating idea that uses the lower branches off the plantation trees. Ryan and Jesse have been cutting boughs and getting them ready for orders this season. We have Fraser, Balsam and Pine boughs ready to go to florists, inns and private homes so the decorating can begin. We will have video of this on You Tube soon!! If you would like some boughs e-mail or call the farm.