Illinois tree farms › Ben's Christmas Tree Farm
Ben's Christmas Tree Farm
Harvard, Illinois · McHenry County
Opens Nov 27
Opens November 27.
Ben came out from Chicago in 1982 with an MBA and 55 acres outside Harvard, and the family never left. His sons Chris and Justin run it now, across a hundred acres. Nothing here gets herbicide or pesticide and never has — that was the rule long before anyone thought to put it on a sign. Eight varieties grow in the fields, more than 10,000 of them Fraser fir.
It's about an hour from the western suburbs and the drive is half the tradition: saws and twine come with the tree, wagon rides out to the fields are free, and Santa turns up with the horse-drawn wagon between ten and three. Firs and spruces start at $98 and pines at $52, with a six-and-a-half-foot minimum. This is one of the few Illinois farms that has already named an opening day for this season — November 27.
The facts
- Cut-your-own Fraser firs and Canaan firs
- Either 9–4:30 or 10–4:30 depending on the day — the farm posts a day-by-day calendar for November and December. Saws and twine come with the tree; cash, check and cards all work.
- Also at the farm: free wagon rides to the fields, horse-drawn wagon rides, Santa on weekends, hot cocoa
- Opening day: November 27
Checked Sep 5 against the farm's own site
What's open this weekend in Illinois →
All Illinois farms, by region →
Christmas tree disposal and recycling in Illinois
The other end of the same trip: when the tree comes down in January, disposal and recycling are a city job and the rules change at the city line — here is who takes it in Chicago — or Christmas tree disposal in every city we cover →
- How do I dispose of a Christmas tree in Illinois?
- Not at the farm — getting rid of a tree is a city service, and the rules change at the city line. We read the tree collection page for 1 city in Illinois, linked just above: each one says whether the tree goes out for curbside pickup or to a drop-off site, and what has to come off it before it does.
- Is there Christmas tree recycling in Illinois?
- The one city we cover in Illinois says on its own page what becomes of a collected tree, and our page quotes that sentence. Where a city doesn't say, we don't say it either.
- Who handles Christmas tree removal once the season is over?
- The city, or the county authority that runs collection for it — that is the body every page in that January list is read from, and the only one that can tell you when it is running. Private haulers will take a tree away as well; they are not on this site, because we only write down what a city puts in writing itself.