SPANISH FORT, Ala. — Kids may flinch when reading, “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas,” especially when the grinch decides to steal the family’s decorated Christmas tree and push it up the chimney.

Christmas trees have become a large part of the holiday tradition and families often make it a family affair to pick out the perfect tree. Despite Christmas trees in this area going through a record drought, Steve Mannhard, owner of Fish River Trees, said his Christmas trees are fine. Fish River Trees is located in Central Baldwin County, five miles east of Fairhope.

Mannhard, a Christmas tree farmer for 26 years, said the drought affected only his work schedule, not the trees themselves.

He said the larger trees such as the cypress and pines seem to be more drought-resistant. Once the trees are two to three years old, they tend to get through it, he said. “The ones we have to water are the baby ones,” he said, and If he hadn’t watered them, he may have lost all of them.

“It was a pain,” said Mannhard, who had to spend a vast amount of his time just dragging hoses around acres and acres.

He said this year was an unusually dry one. Even when it did rain in this region, Baldwin County didn’t get much rain, he said.

Though Mannhard was able to save most of the seedlings, he had a big water bill, especially for the nursery portion.

“We grow 4,000 seedlings,” he said. “The nursery had to use three to four times as much water to irrigate than normal.”

Mannhard had to supplement water more in late spring when it was really dry and now again in November. He said the amount of water he has had to pump is unbelievable.

As far as the weather, Mannhard said he doesn’t pay a lot of attention to it, since he doesn’t have a lot of control over it.

“You learn to just leave it (the weather) alone and just let it be. You just learn to accept what is,” he said.

To him, the drought is not a big deal for Christmas tree farms in this area, he said.

Stanley Anderson with the Alabama Forestry Commission said they have not heard of any specific complaints or problems caused by the drought from Christmas tree growers.

Anderson, a wild land/urban interface coordinator, said some growers may have to do supplemental watering. There has been no death of trees or reduction in tree growth due to the drought reported, he said.

Beau Brodbeck, regional extension agent in forestry, wildlife and natural resources, said trees don’t grow very fast, and it sometimes takes years for trees to feel the effect of a storm.

A commercial horticulturist, James Miles, said the last two years the weather has had a cumulative effect on trees.

“The last four years has been stressful on Christmas tree growers,” he said.

With two years of hurricanes and two years of drought, it has made it a more difficult production. Anderson said the drought that is in the southeast region of the county is mostly mostly in the Tennessee Valley, the Piedmont and upper coastal plains, affecting Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina regions.

Pine trees are tough and have adjusted to our environment, Anderson said. Anderson and his family will pick out a Virginia pine for their Christmas tree.

“We can go cut them and pick them out while standing, get them home while still fresh and they haven’t been transported halfway across the country,” he said.

Because they are fresher and greener, they are also safer, Anderson said, and getting a tree is a family affair and his kids pick one out. When you buy local trees, you help support the local growers, Anderson said.