Jonathan Lin/The Jersey Journal

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With Thanksgiving out of the way, families in Jersey City are getting a head start on Christmas by buying one the holiday's most symbolic items: a Christmas tree.

Despite close-to-freezing temperatures, Brian Becker, the owner of the Dairy Queen on Westside Avenue, was out and about in the store's lot earlier this afternoon, where dozens of his beautiful Christmas trees were on sale.

Jersey City residents Nora Fitzpatrick and her husband, Trey, along with their three children ages four, six and eight, looked eagerly around the lot for the perfect tree among a selection that included Douglas and Frasier firs.

The trees ranged from two to 14 feet in height, with the smallest trees costing $20 and the biggest trees costing $100.

The Fitzpatricks ended up buying two trees - a small one for the kids and a big one for everyone in the family.

"The kids like to have (a tree) up," Nora said, as her three kids frolicked in front of the Dairy Queen with their ice cream.

She added that her own family had bought Christmas trees from the same Dairy Queen lot since she was a teenager.

Becker said he acquired both the Dairy Queen and the Christmas tree lot in 1971 and has sold both ice cream and trees ever since.

"Ice cream's a fun thing to have and getting a Christmas tree is also a fun thing," he said. "I've been doing this for many years."

Becker said the trees in his lot came from North Carolina, Nova Scotia, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, among other places.

He said the Christmas tree season started on Black Friday, though some families had come into the lot to buy trees before Thanksgiving

Becker said one family every year tried to plant a Christmas tree they bought from him in the hopes that it would grow.

"But it doesn't grow," he said, chuckling.