"It the smell and the look of them that makes it a better experience," he said.

Families will have the opportunity to get their hands on a real tree on the weekend, with sale profits going towards local children's charities including the Special Care Nursery in the Maternity War and Wagga Base Hospital, and the Villomah program which provides support to grieving families who have lost their child or baby.

"I started [selling the trees for charity] under the auspices of rotary eight years ago," Mr O'Grady said.

"We do change the charities, however, the common factor has always been supporting Wagga based hospital - specifically relating to children.

"In the past, we have supported the children's ward, special care nursery and we usually try and adopt another charity as well."

The drive to use the Christmas trees as a way to give back to local children's charities arose as Mr O'Grady reflected on what the festive season represented to him.

"I see Christmas as being about families and children and we have a lot of families come along to pick out their Christmas trees with their children," he said.

"I strongly supported my rotary club to get the profits of the sales of the c Christmas tree to go to charities that support children and their families."

The trees are sourced from Thurgoona which is situated near the Victorian border.

"They're commercially grown using genetically modified seed stock specific to growing Christmas trees," Mr O'Grady said.

"They are pruned to help in the shaping and density of the tree.

"They are actually grown by another rotary club, they grow them and we by them, so it's one rotary club supplying another."

Mr O'Grady is feeling particularly optimistic this year.

"I think this year could be a good year because of COVID and the fact that we're all looking for something positive to finish the year with," he said.

"People are pretty keen to make Christmas special for the kids.

"I'm expecting we will sell around 165 trees."

Mr O'Grady said a real Christmas tree is the perfect way to raise the bar this festive season as there is nothing else like it.

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"When I was a child most of us had live trees, they use to sell them all over the place," he said.

"I was brought up on the advantage of having a live Christmas tree- when you walk into a room with a live Christmas tree you can smell the live pine needles."

Residents will be able to purchase a tree from the Bunnings car park on Saturday, December 4, or Saturday Dember 11 and Sunday, December 12.

"I cut them early that morning and bring them back to Bunnings after," Mr O'Grady said.

"We start selling them from 10am and they usually sell out by 12.

"I usually have a couple of trees left to come back on Sunday, but there are no guarantees.

"If I sell out, that's it. You can pre-order them and when I get there on Saturday morning I'll put those trees aside."

Mr O'Grady said they will also be hosting a Bunnings barbecue.

"We get support from a number of organisations," he said.

"In our rotary, we have a corporate sponsorship with Bush and Campbell Accountants and they are keen to help with fundraising and things like, so they provided staff to help us with the trees.

"We are also having a barbecue next Saturday at Bunnings as well and Bush and Campbell are proving half of the staff to help run the barbecue."

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