The trip to buy a Christmas tree only happens once a year, so the Graces try to make their tree farm befitting of that rare occasion.

They build a crackling bonfire and serve hot cider. They set up a hay fort and an electronic talking Christmas tree. On select weekends, they even stick fake reindeer antlers on a pony. They turn their 25-acre property, Woodbee Christmas Tree Farm, into a place where families can spend hours.

“It’s very joyful,” Teddie Grace, 46, said of the farm she owns with her husband. “People are here to have a good time.”

The Graces bought the tree farm in 2005. They wanted an established business. They weren’t farmers, but Woodbee Christmas Tree Farm seemed like a fit.

“We wanted something that was fun,” Dave Grace, 47, said. “We didn’t want stress. We didn’t want to make widgets. Here, the people come and they’re happy. That’s the whole thing.”

Under their care, the Whidbey Island destination provides visitors with an ideal holiday day trip.

After driving over Deception Pass and hooking south to the Oak Harbor farm, visitors are greeted by the Graces’ friendly yellow Labradors, Sugar and Kelly.

Children can make a beeline for a hay fort or visit with Randolph, a pony that wears fake reindeer horns, and is billed as “the phoney baloney pony who thinks he’s a reindeer.” Randolph will only be at the farm for two weekends this year later in the season.

At the bonfire, families tend to bring their own hot dogs and marshmallows, making lunch over the fire, the Graces said.

Granted, the big draw is the trees: Fraser, Douglas and noble firs, along with Norway spruces. They range from $5 a foot for Douglas firs to $8 a foot for a noble. Families can choose between precut trees, or cut their own. After the perfect tree is found, it’s bound with netting for the drive home.

While the farm officially opened on Friday, locals like Scott Fraser were swinging by weeks ago, looking for a tree. Fraser needed a flocked tree — a tree covered in a white substance that looks like snow and acts as a fire retardant.

Fraser, who needed the tree for his Oak Harbor restaurant, Fraser’s Gourmet Hideaway, said he used a fake tree until 2007, when the Graces proved to him the superiority of the genuine article.

Now, walking among the rows of trees — about 3,000 on the property in total — Fraser is thankful he has a place to go each year.

“You can’t go wrong with a farm like this,” he said.

Andy Rathbun

arathbun@heraldnet.com

425-339-3455

Woodbee Christmas Tree Farm

2870 N. Torpedo Road, Oak Harbor; 360-240-9461, www.woodbeechristmastree.com. Open 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily until Dec. 24.