Our Family Story
Owners, John and Kathy Chefas; along with their son, Steven Chefas and their daughter, Carrie McClain have worked with Hart-T-Tree Farms at the farm in North Carolina and on their retail lots in Southeast Florida.
John started selling Christmas trees when he was in grade school. John’s father, Spiros Chefas, sold Christmas trees outside the family home in Chicago, Illinois for over 50 years.
Throughout the 1960s and early 1970s, John ran his own tree lot on the north side of Chicago. When John and Kathy met in 1976, John had just purchased his first piece of property in Hart, Michigan to start growing his own Christmas trees. Hart-T-Tree Farms was born soon after over a deep-dish, Chicago-style pizza in Chicago, where Kathy sketched out a picture of a heart inside of a Christmas tree and coming up with the name “Hart-T-Tree Farms”, which would become their logo and name today
John, who had attended University of Miami, and Kathy decided that Florida would be a much more hospitable place to sell Christmas trees. The retail operation moved to Southeast Florida in 1980 and opened the first Christmas tree lot in Pompano Beach, Florida.
As the Fraser fir Christmas tree grew in popularity, John and Kathy relocated to Grassy Creek, North Carolina in 1986 to grow Fraser firs in their native Appalachian mountains.
Since 1980, Hart-T-Tree Farms has had Christmas tree lots in various Florida counties and cities.
In 2006, John and Kathy’s son, Steven Chefas joined the family farm and traveled back and forth between North Carolina and Florida during the harvest and retail season. Steven and his family eventually moved to Texas for another business opportunity, but Steven still helps Kathy down in Florida during the retail season. Steven’s oldest daughter, Callie, has taken an interest in the family business as well and helps with marketing while she studies business at the University of Texas at Tyler. Steven’s three daughters and wife, Samantha, enjoy coming to Florida during holiday breaks to help down on the lots during the retail season as well.
In 2011, John and Kathy’s daughter, Carrie McClain joined the family farm. She and her husband, Jeff, currently run and maintain the farm in North Carolina.