The Living Christmas Company’s mission “to change the way California celebrates Christmas” was born the year that Scott Martin, aka Scotty Claus, spent his Christmas vacation delivering Christmas trees for a local nursery. Gleefully singing Christmas carols in his Santa hat, Scotty Claus was amazed at the sheer magic and merriment created by the simple act of bringing a Christmas tree into the house. The tree delivery always seemed to signal that Christmas in the home had truly begun.
After delivering this intense joy and holiday cheer just weeks earlier, Scotty Claus experienced the contrasting sadness in seeing the same tree discarded on the curb in the weeks following Christmas. How could it be that a tree that symbolized hope, joy and new life just weeks earlier could be so easily abandoned? It was from this experience, that the idea for The Living Christmas Company was born.
Founded in 2008 as a local service throughout the South Bay community in California, the Living Christmas Company has pioneered the movement towards eco-friendly holiday celebrations. Offering the highest quality locally-grown, local varieties of living Christmas trees, the Living Christmas Company allows businesses, organizations and families to rent a Christmas tree for the holiday season. Customers are able to log online, select their preferred type and size of tree, schedule delivery and pick up and purchase ecologically sensitive ornaments and Fair Trade decorations.
Through its tree-rental program, the Living Christmas Company is offering holiday traditions that are not only sustainable, but regenerative in their contributions to the environment and community. The service provides an environmentally conscious and convenient alternative to traditional cut or artificial trees. After the Christmas season, the trees are then returned to the nursery, repotted into larger containers and maintained until the next season. If, at any point, the tree becomes too large or unusable as Christmas trees, the tree is planted in the local community or nearby forests through an Urban Reforestation Project.
Since its founding, the Living Christmas Company has expanded its rental program to include Pacific Palisades, West Hollywood and Santa Monica. As the company continues to expand, it hopes to provide tree-rental services to environmentally conscious people across the nation, changing the way the world celebrates Christmas.