The Secret History of Disneyland's Perfect Christmas Trees

Disneyland's Christmas Tree Tradition

• 🎄 The story of Disneyland's Christmas trees begins with Veto Sarno, an air conditioning technician looking for seasonal work, who started a Christmas tree lot.
• 💡 Veto evolved into a commercial Christmas tree provider, eventually securing a contract with Disneyland in the 1960s to supply a 35-foot tree.
• 🌲 For the 35-foot tree, Veto sourced a white fir from Mount Shasta, collected extra branches, and used glue and styrofoam beads to create a "snow-covered" appearance, a technique known as "Frankensteining."

The Sarno Family's Reign at Disneyland

• 👑 For over 20 years, the Sarno family's custom Christmas tree business supplied Disneyland with its main Town Square tree, which grew to 60 feet.
• 🌳 The family followed a sustainable practice of planting five white fir saplings for every tree cut, typically sourced from private land near Mount Shasta.
• ⚙️ The process of preparing the tree involved cutting it in early October, transporting it to Anaheim, and then spending 5-60 hours with a dozen staffers to add over 3,000 lights and 2,800 ornaments.
• ⚠️ A significant concern with live trees was their flammability, with one artificial tree at the Grand Californian even catching fire.

Transition to Artificial Trees

• ✨ By 2008, Disneyland transitioned to artificial Christmas trees, citing environmental reasons and the desire to "go green."
• 🏗️ The 2008 artificial tree weighed 12 tons, required 15 cast members and two cranes to erect, and featured 1,200 faux branches and 280,000 fake pine tips.
• 💡 The tree was adorned with 70,000 LED white lights, 4,800 colored lights, and 2,000 ornaments.

Modern Giant Christmas Trees

• 💰 The Sarno family business, now Victor's Custom Christmas Trees, continues to provide enormous trees, with a 115-foot tree in Newport Beach costing $1,000 per foot.
• 📸 These large trees serve as traditions for families and drive significant shopping traffic to malls.
• 🦉 The lemony scent of the white fir was a key reason for its selection at Disneyland, and the podcast humorously wonders about the scent of the Rockefeller Center tree, especially after an owl was found in it.