Fabulous firs: Pines and Needles' premium Christmas trees

I sold my first Christmas tree when I was 13. My father was clearing some land with firs on it and we [Sam and his co-founder brother Josh] saw them as a way of making some pocket money. That turned into something we started to do every year and now we sell around 50,000 trees a year. It's a real feel-good product – it's still great to see the enthusiasm you get from children and families – and I love that it's a green and natural product.

But it's also a very intensive business, of course. Everybody wants a Christmas tree at the same time – although what they say about Christmas starting earlier every year is true. Our bumper week used to be the second in December. Now it all starts the first week of November. And why not? It makes sense to enjoy your tree for as long as possible. I studied business but wish I'd paid more attention to matters of stock and logistics. Our biggest challenge is getting so many trees to so many places in such a short space of time.

We're busy all year round, too – planting in March, pruning in June and July, harvesting from November. It's the pruning that's most important, to get that full, bushy shape. Ours is the all-American, Christmas-card style of tree – American in the way that nation also gave us the idea of Santa Claus wearing a red suit.

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You can compare what we do to coffee. You can get coffee anywhere, much as you can get a Christmas tree on your street corner, but certain brands ensure certain standards and taste. We're dedicated specialists in Christmas trees. Getting ours right has been a process of scientific trial and error, but occasionally – in about half a per cent of cases – even ours do that annoying thing of dying too soon. Nobody understands why that happens, but we always advise keeping your tree in a water-holding stand.

Certainly we're keen to stress that a natural tree is still better for the environment than an artificial one. Real trees can be recycled and are carbon positive. Artificial ones tend to end up in landfill within a couple of years.

We've learnt a lot along the way, by luck and by being passionate. Despite the family history, neither of us knew much about business, although I guess sugar is also a feel-good product ­– although one we should limit our intake of, whereas Christmas trees are always good. As part of the culture of Christmas, they seem to be something many people enjoy, regardless of their religion or background. Even we get to enjoy one. We finally get to rest by Christmas Day, but by then we're not very good company. We're pretty grumpy.

SAM LYLE is, with his brother Josh, the co-founder of Pines and Needles, the UK's first premium-Christmas-tree company, supplying the likes of Downing Street and celebrity clientele such as Madonna. In 2017, the company will branch out into floristry; pinesandneedles.com