NASHUA – Illan Kessler likes to joke that people assume he works only one month a year.

Kessler runs a Christmas tree business. The assumption is he rolls out trees the day after Thanksgiving and then calls it a year on Christmas Eve.

Not so, said Kessler, whose handshake stuck to a visitor not just through grip strength but from a heavy coating of tree sap courtesy of a 25-foot, $4,000 fir that he was preparing to ship Friday to Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington.

Eleven months out of the year, Kessler readies for the holiday season by communicating, via the Internet, with suppliers and buyers worldwide so he can hit the ground running once small households and large companies start thinking about Christmas.

His clients include Apple, MGM Mirage, the city of New Orleans and Faneuil Hall Marketplace, according to the company Web site.

North Pole Xmas Trees is a second-generation business. Kessler’s father sold Christmas trees, and family members – dating back to his great-grandfather – owned and operated the famed Kessler Farms that used to spread as far as the eye could see on the northwest side of the city.

The farm has since been replaced by box stores and restaurants on a now traffic-congested Route 101A. And the parking lot where Kessler conducts tree sales is nowadays more famous for the retailer that just went out of business there, Building 19.

Kessler sleeps in a camper in the parking lot, partly to keep an eye on the trees but mostly because he reminisces about the days of his youth, when he stayed overnight at his grandmother’s house, which used to sit across the street.

Nostalgia, after all, is one of the lures of a Christmas tree.

Each year, families jump in their most spacious cars and trucks and head to a tree farm or retail outfit in a parking lot. They eye the tree that will look best – and fit best – inside their homes, and either cut it or have a clerk haul a pre-cut one to the vehicle.

By the end of the day, they have time-worn ornaments and lights hung on the tree, marking the beginning of the countdown to Christmas.

That’s what Donna Beedham and her family did Friday at Noel’s Tree Farm in Litchfield.

“We were looking for one that wasn’t shedding,” Beedham said, explaining the family’s approach to picking a favorite in a lot of hundreds of balsam and Fraser firs.

Pete Olsen and family drove south on Route 3A from Manchester to pick their Christmas tree at Noel’s for a second straight year. They left with a 6-foot fir strapped to the top of their truck.

Noel’s Tree Farm offers pre-cut trees as well as trees ready for cutting, owner Paul Lemire said. Prices range from $10 to $125, and sizes range from those suited for a tiny table-top – of the Charlie Brown variety – to ones as tall as 14 feet.

A balsam has a strong fragrance, but a Fraser sheds fewer needles, Lemire said. Fraser is gaining in popularity among customers, he said.

To entice families to make Noel’s their tree destination, Lemire offers a fire pit for roasting marshmallows, refreshments and a petting zoo complete with llamas, sheep and donkeys. But maybe the coolest offering is a yellow mechanical box on which a tree is shaken, ridding it of loose needles.

Christmas trees also shake out a lot of money for growers and sellers.

Last year, U.S. households bought 27 million real Christmas trees, according to the National Christmas Tree Association. At an average of $36.12 per tree, that amounted to $976 million in real tree sales, the association said.

Consumers prefer real trees over fake ones, but the artificial trees still generate revenue, according to the association. Last year, 8.2 million artificial trees were sold nationwide, producing $530 million in revenue based on an average tree price of $64.61.

It’s no wonder, Kessler said, that his company wants to “position ourselves as the global leader in Christmas tree distribution.”

During those 11 other months when people think Kessler is relaxing, he is working the phone and computer, arranging purchases and sales with suppliers and buyers in the United States, Canada and Europe, he said.

Last year, to illustrate the scope of his dealings, Kessler said he distributed a Christmas tree to every Apple retail store around the world.

This year, North Pole Xmas Trees will offer 3,000 trees for retail at sale locations in Nashua, Hudson, and Londonderry and spots in Tyngsborough, Lowell and Chelmsford, Mass., Kessler said. He has everything from 2-foot tabletoppers to 25-footers. His wholesale end will move 25,000 trees, he said.

Kessler, four employees and a truck driver lifted, by hand, the 25-foot fir into the back of a tractor-trailer that will deliver the tree to its home, the International Finance Corp. building on Pennsylvania Avenue. The tree’s journey had started in Quebec, where it was grown.

“This tree only speaks French,” Kessler said.

Albert McKeon can be reached at 594-6528 or amckeon@nashuatelegraph.com. Also check out McKeon (@Telegraph_AMcK) on Twitter.