The undeveloped lot at the corner of Seventh Avenue and Lawton Street is quiet and lifeless most of the year. But, at year’s end, pumpkins and Christmas trees line a dirt path, giant candy canes stand illuminated by strings of lights, and the whir of saws fills the air.
Opened in 1949, Clancy’s Pumpkins and Christmas Trees has been at this corner of the Inner Sunset for 41 years. But perhaps not for much longer. Earlier this year, the Board of Education approved using the undeveloped land at 1620 Seventh Ave., owned by the SFUSD, as a potential site for teacher housing, which would move the school district closer to its goal of developing 550 educator housing units across San Francisco by 2030.
It is unclear how long it will take for the project to break ground. But for Clancy’s, the clock is ticking.
“I understand that they need housing. But we are kind of a staple here. There are not a lot of places like this anymore,” said Stephen Clancy who, with his wife, took over the business from his parents in 2020; they also run a second location at 2101 Sloat Blvd. outside the San Francisco Zoo. “We hope for the best.”
What would Clancy do when he can no longer sell Christmas trees at this lot? Clancy paused for a long time. “I try very hard not to think about it,” he said. “If we don’t have this, we’ll find another way to carry on.”
As much as Clancy will miss the lot, customers seemed excited about the housing development.
“Honestly, that would be great,” said Erin Nelson, who has lived in the Sunset for 19 years. “We love to get our pumpkins here and our Christmas trees, but the rest of the year, it just sits.”
And for most, Christmas is business as usual this year.
On a recent Friday, Clancy, in a flannel shirt and brown vest, was standing inside a giant cardboard box and putting away bags of tree flocking. The flocking, which is sprayed on, is used to turn trees into different colors: White is the most popular, in a city that almost never snows, but “Black was a big hit this year,” Clancy said.
“It’s a fun business, but also a labor of love,” said Clancy. “All year, we are working towards the fall.”
During the months when the Clancy family is not working at the lot, they are busy farming the trees at Silverton, Oregon, and growing the pumpkins in Manteca, California. “We are also working on the farm equipment that we neglected in the holiday months,” he said.
Every year, Clancy’s sells a few thousand trees. To make sure they are fresh — a top request from customers — workers deliver them from Oregon at least once or twice a week. It’s easy to tell when a tree is dry — “when you pull on the needles and they come right off,” Clancy said, adding that old trees can “look a little dingy.”
On Friday, just five days from Christmas, most trees have been sold, and Clancy and his crew are already putting tools away in cardboard boxes and the back of a truck.
But there are still some 50 trees left for last-minute tree shoppers: People who celebrate Russian Christmas, for example, won’t have their celebration until Jan. 7. “They sometimes come on the 25th, just to make sure their trees last longer,” Clancy said.
Kaylan Haley, who just returned from a European trip, was one of the last-minute shoppers. “I have to get here before it rains!” Haley said.
She knows exactly how she will decorate her tree. “What takes up the most space in my closet is probably my Christmas decorations,” she laughed. She will have both multi-colored and white lights, ornaments from when she was a kid, and her favorite ornament: A wooden beaded fairy in a green dress that looks like Tinker Bell.
Living in the lower Pacific Heights, Haley drove off in a white Zipcar she rented just to haul the tree home.
In the section with small, knee-high trees at the entrance of the lot, Ruby was looking for “a little one to put on the table.” Her kids, now in their 40s, are no longer so interested in coming to pick up the tree. “They say, ‘Mom, you go get it,’” Ruby said. But still, the kids enjoy the smell of the fir.
There are more people shopping for a real tree than there used to be, Clancy said, referring to them as “a lot of plastic.”
“A live tree takes in carbon dioxide and breathes out oxygen when it grows. You cut one down, another one grows out,” he said. “It’s a great circle that we have.”
Nelson, the longtime Sunset resident, agreed. She was at the Christmas tree lot alone picking up a wreath. Her family bought their tree the week after Thanksgiving.
“I can’t imagine ever not having a real tree,” she said. Growing up in a rural area in Western Pennsylvania, she remembers going to a farm, trudging out with an ax and cutting one down herself.
In the first year after having her daughter, she got a potted tree at the hardware store on Haight Street. “It was the last one they had on Christmas Eve. It was half dead,” she said. “But it was okay. It was our first tree.”
After coming to Clancy’s a couple of times, her kids became obsessed. “They always wanted to come here because it was a tradition. They are like, ‘It’s not Christmas if we don’t come here!’” she said.
Clancy’s favorite part of the job is watching such traditions form. One of his most loyal customers is an 82-year-old woman who has been buying trees from Clancy’s for years.
“She is always the first customer waiting for the first truck to arrive,” Clancy said.
Clancy’s own tree, he said, is a typical seven-and-a-half foot fir with a nutcracker as the topper. As it happens, it’s usually on Christmas Day when the Clancy family finally has time to finish decorating the tree.
“But for five weeks, we get to enjoy all the trees here,” Clancy said.
Clancy said he never feels sad driving by the trees discarded in January.
“They finished their life cycle. They made it to someone’s house, exactly what they are for. Now they’ll be chopped up and go back to nature,” he said. “It’s a sense of accomplishment for me.”