Don McKinster was so particular about Christmas trees he sold that he’d pick out certain trees for his most loyal customers. And he often delivered them.
McKinster, who sold trees for almost 50 years, died Feb. 23 of kidney failure. He was 77.
McKinster made long-term friends of his customers, sometimes giving them hugs and sometimes joining them for a glass of wine when he delivered a tree, according to a Denver Post story.
He made several trips each year to get trees in the Sangre de Cristo mountains in southwest Colorado searching for just the right balsam firs, which were his biggest sellers. He called the firs “the Cadillac of trees.”
“Cutting Christmas trees isn’t like you see in the movies,” said his son, Jerry McKinster, who often worked with his dad at the unmarked lot on Leetsdale Drive just east of South Monaco Parkway.
“You don’t just stop along the highway, get out, cut a tree and load it into your car. We would go to certain elevations to find the firs. It was the funnest, but the hardest work I ever did,” said Jerry McKinster, who lives in Reno, Nev.
“It was a joy to watch him with the trees,” said Diane Cast, a volunteer at St. John’s Episcopal Cathedral, East 14th Avenue and Washington Street.
McKinster was the cathedral’s tree man for 45 years. The church bought two huge trees, 15 feet to 18 feet, and some smaller ones, Cast said.
McKinster made several trips to cut trees each year, so the customers got such fresh trees that they would last through Valentine’s Day, according to the Post story.
B.J. Scott started buying McKinster trees in 1975. McKinster’s death “is a terrible loss for all of us. You don’t run into plain, down-home, good people like Don all the time,” she said.
Her family has always bought a 9-foot tree, plus “we’d buy the ugliest, saddest tree, which we called the Charlie Brown tree.” But they had to search for a McKinster tree that was ugly, she said.
Donald L. McKinster was born in Denver on March 24, 1931, and was reared on a farm in the Franktown area. He graduated from Douglas County High School.
He married Kay Peterson in October 1950. She decorated hundreds of wreaths each year to sell at the Christmas tree lot.
After four years in the Air Force, McKinster graded lots for homebuilders, worked for plumbers and then decided one day he’d sell Christmas trees, his wife said.
When not selling Christmas trees, he was a landscape artist for private residences.
In addition to his wife and son, he is survived by two other sons: Clayton McKinster and Stanley McKinster, both of Denver; seven grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren.
Virginia Culver: 303-954-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com
