New York City is famous for its holiday delights: the Macy’s Thanksgiving parade, the tree lighting at Rockefeller Center, the Rockettes. But the glitter and gold often stand in stark contrast to the city’s gritty streets. Helping to bridge that divide are five families who, almost overnight, transform the five boroughs into forests of fir trees every December. “The Merchants of Joy,” now streaming on Amazon Prime, is a different kind of holiday movie. It features some street-wise themes and language you don’t often encounter in Christmas movies (it’s recommended for ages 16 and up). But, through its storytelling, it also aims to show the spirit of the season from a new perspective: that of the sidewalk tree merchant.
Director Celia Aniskovich says in a Zoom interview that she hoped to make “a film that people could revisit and watch year after year, and feel a kind of warm Christmas hug with a little grit.”
Rainy Decembers and the increased demand for artificial trees are among the challenges the tree families face – not to mention high-stakes competition. But they return every year, often helping each other and the community. Ms. Aniskovich says the project in many ways restored her faith in humanity. “I saw real generosity and love at every turn.”
Why We Wrote This
Director Celia Aniskovich’s new documentary, “The Merchants of Joy,” explores the tree-selling families that turn New York’s streets into forests of firs at the holidays – and highlights the competition and compassion that accompany them.
The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
How did you come to tell this story of the Christmas tree merchants?
In December of 2022, there was an article called “Secrets of the Christmas Tree Trade” [by Owen Long] that was published in Epic magazine. … Right after the article was published, everybody in the world sent it to me, starting with my own mother, and said. … It’s New York, it’s Christmas. Do you know this story? You’ve got to make this film. … So, we optioned the article. And that was the foundation of the film. And then [the writer] introduced me to Big Greg [Greg Walsh of Greg’s Trees]. I went to his house in Queens. He grilled me with some questions, decided I was worthy, and then introduced me to all of the other families.
Courtesy of Celia Aniskovich
The title of the film includes that word: joy. What does that mean to you?
“Merchants of Joy” is actually the Nashs’ [one of the five families] tagline. They’ve had it since 1974. … We talk a lot about what divides us. We talk a lot about the dark of the world. There aren’t a lot of happy documentaries out there. To me, joy is not naive; joy is brave. Joy is hard. It’s work. But we can do it. It’s something we can all give to one another.
The merchants are clearly competitive and sometimes salty entrepreneurs. However, you also show them as collaborators and supporters of each other. How did you balance those two sides?
Very quickly, it, for me, became important to recognize that this was a film about a lot more than petty rivalries and a lot more than sales figures. This was about something much bigger, and that was going to be the takeaway. It wasn’t going to be: Who won Christmas?
Watching the film, I was surprised to learn that many of the workers sleep at the Christmas tree stands during the five weeks they are selling trees in the city. What did you learn that was unexpected during this three-year project?
I lived in New York for 15 years. Like so many New Yorkers, you go to bed one day, you wake up, and the whole city is a forest, and you never really think: How did they get here? What does it take? I never imagined that these five families would control almost all of the sales of trees across the five boroughs. I was shocked at the practical level of how it worked, how much it cost. You know, Ciree Nash [the CEO of Uptown Christmas Trees] just told me it costs her $1.3 million to break even every year. That’s wild. … But then on [the] less logistical side, I was really shocked to learn that this is a calling for these people. Greg says, “We are hustlers. We’re peddlers. But we could have chosen to sell anything, and we chose to sell trees because it’s not just about a product for us. It’s about a memory and a moment and creating that special time for families.”
What universal themes do you think will resonate with people watching this story?
This to me is a story about tradition, a story about family, a story about a legacy, a story about community. These five families are … [from] different backgrounds, and they come together, and they put Christmas first. For some of them … it is a religious calling. They feel as though they have been put on this earth to bring people magic, but also to … [help people], as you saw in the film, Heather [Neville of the NYC Tree Lady] hires the “undesirables,” as they describe themselves. There are a lot of universal themes in this movie. I hope the biggest one that people see is that you can change someone’s life. You don’t know what a kind word might do for someone. You don’t know what a hand up might mean.
What do you hope viewers carry away with them after watching this film?
This is a celebration of working-class joy. We don’t see a lot of working-class joy, and it’s really powerful. I hope that people watch this with their families again and again. I hope they carry with them some of the messages that all of these tree salesmen brought me, which is that life is about a lot more than the little things we worry about.
