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Couple Is Finally Selling 1,000 Christmas Trees That They Planted 10 Years Ago To Pay for Grandkids’ Education

By Emma Taggart on December 13, 2024

Ten years ago, Bruce and Shawn Carpenter had a big idea: they planted 5,000 tiny pine and fir trees in rural Indiana, dreaming of what they could become. Fast forward to today, and around 1,000 of those trees survived and are now fully grown. The couple—who own a holiday campground in Brown County—are currently selling them, and plan to use the proceeds to help fund their eight grandchildren’s education.

“It was an investment to help our grandkids for college,” Shawn Carpenter says. “One that’s taken awhile.” With the couple’s oldest grandchild now a freshman in college, it’s the perfect time to harvest the trees—some of which have grown to an impressive 14 feet tall.

Bruce and Shawn made a simple “Christmas Trees for Sale” sign to catch the eye of passersby and invite them to their property, Bittersweet Farms. They also shared a Facebook post encouraging people to visit and support their effort to fund their grandchildren’s college expenses.

Visitors can choose from Scotch pines, concolor firs, and Canaan firs, with the option to cut down the tree themselves. Carpenter explains, “It’s whatever they want—we’ll cut it for them or give them a saw to do it themselves.”

On November 30, their first day of business, the family sold six trees, including two of their largest, to a Columbus Regional Hospital executive who purchased a tree for the hospital for both 2024 and 2025.

Bittersweet Farms charges $10 per foot for their trees, and if the Carpenters sell 60% of their stock at an average price of $83 per tree, they’re looking at nearly $50,000 in sales. After factoring in expenses and taxes—around 20% of their take-home—they’d wrap up the season with about $39,000 in profit. If all eight grandchildren attend university, each would receive $4,875 from their grandparents—a great way to kickstart the next chapter of their lives.