"You're kind of mythical, folkloric creatures..."

December 3, 2023 5:55 PM

For four years each December, Québecois Marc-Antoine Goyette headed across the Canadian border, destined for a New York City street corner. Once there, Goyette built a small shelter to live in for the month, and sold fresh Christmas trees to residents from Manhattan and the Bronx. (a NYC law allows sale and display of coniferous trees on the streets without a permit, only during the month of December)
posted by jessamyn (6 comments total)

I'm curious about the Christmas tree Mafia! A tantalizing interview all around, I'm definitely going to watch the documentary tomorrow
posted by Baethan at 8:31 PM on December 3, 2023

So interesting! I lived in Manhattan for 7 years and was always happy to see the Christmas tree stands show up every winter because it meant I got to walk through a piney pop up forest every day on the way to work for a few weeks, but I never understood where they came from or who ran them etc etc
posted by Tandem Affinity at 8:45 PM on December 3, 2023 [2 favorites]

So Mary Beard was doing one of her shows about that Roman Empire and trade. And the show had a moment of walking around an ancient Roman dock in Spain that still had the names of the materials that were supposed to be unloaded at the certain spots in mosaic on the grounds around the dock.

And she posited what it must have been like to experience all the sights and smells of the different olives and fishes and the workers and sea crews.

This 30 minutes of these folks living in the NYC street for a month legally to sell Xmas trees is exactly what I would have wanted to see about that scene 2000 years ago. What a great document to Christmas and meta-modernity.
posted by MonsieurPEB at 8:52 PM on December 3, 2023 [3 favorites]

There’s a full-length documentary called Tree Man from 2015 that follows one of these guys and the crew of local NYC teens he hires every year to work the lot with him. It’s a go-to watch for me almost every Christmas season. (Here’s the trailer.)
posted by Atom Eyes at 11:41 PM on December 3, 2023 [6 favorites]

Planet Money did a great episode on this: We Buy A Lot Of Christmas Trees
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 4:19 AM on December 4, 2023 [2 favorites]

Planet Money did a great episode on this

You know, I bet that is what piqued my interest in this special when I saw this come across my feeds at Vermont Public. Robert is a pal and I bet he talked to me about this.
posted by jessamyn at 7:49 AM on December 4, 2023 [2 favorites]