Outside McCarren Park in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, there is a wide selection of fresh-cut Christmas trees lined up on Driggs Avenue.<\/p>\n
This is part of the 40th anniversary setup for Greg\u2019s Trees.<\/p>\n
What You Need To Know<\/p>\n
Greg’s Trees celebrates 40 years in business this Christmas. However, it marks the first year without owner Gregory Walsh, who died of prostate cancer in May
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Walsh’s son, who is also named Gregory, is honoring his father’s legacy by not hiring anyone to play Santa this year to appear at displays in Brooklyn and Queens. His father took joy in dressing up as Santa
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Walsh believes his father would have been proud that he is continuing the family business<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are the Frasers from North Carolina,\u201d owner Gregory Walsh of College Point said. \u201cThese are the most popular trees across the board.\u201d<\/p>\n
Walsh says that while returning customers have found much is the same, this year, one long-running tradition will be broken.<\/p>\n
After Walsh\u2019s father, who was known as \u201cBig Greg,\u201d died of prostate cancer this past May on the same day as his 63rd birthday, it was decided that Greg\u2019s Trees would honor its founder by not bringing in a replacement Santa.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe used to do Santa at all the stands,\u201d Walsh said, mentioning that it\u2019s weird that he\u2019s not Santa there. \u201cSo it\u2019s strange, but [we’ve] gotta adapt and keep going.”<\/p>\n
For Walsh, who is just 22 years old, persevering to ensure that the family business continues to thrive is one of many ways he remains connected to his father.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, it\u2019s strange not having my dad,\u201d he said. \u201cHe was Santa, and he was also the boss. We\u2019re carrying on his legacy in the best way we know, I think, keeping the business going.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a bittersweet twist, the image of Walsh\u2019s beloved father as Santa Claus will continue to endure, thanks to a new documentary called \u201cThe Merchants of Joy,\u201d which is now streaming on Amazon Prime.<\/p>\n
Walsh says the documentary will always remain dear to him since most of his father\u2019s scenes were filmed in 2023, when he was still joyful.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s great. We\u2019ll have that forever,\u201d he said. \u201cThat was him at his best. Happy go lucky Santa. Full [of] energy. It\u2019s really nice and special to have.\u201d<\/p>\n
Family friend Antonino Brusca of Flushing believes \u201cBig Greg\u201d would be very proud.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember when he was 10 years old, he used to come with his pop to the shop. The little one was always next to Greg. He was always with his father, and I\u2019m very happy that he\u2019s taking his father\u2019s position right now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Looking ahead, Walsh says his time in the Santa suit is still about 20 years away.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know if I can grow a beard like he did,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
However, Walsh says he does intend to hire someone next year to dress as Santa to continue that part of his father\u2019s legacy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he\u2019s looking down on us, happy that we\u2019re still doing it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Outside McCarren Park in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, there is a wide selection of fresh-cut Christmas trees lined up on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":78494,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[2296,25,98,100,99,231,9,24,12,63,10387,27,200],"class_list":{"0":"post-78493","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brooklyn","8":"tag-app-human-interest","9":"tag-app-top-stories","10":"tag-brooklyn","11":"tag-brooklyn-headlines","12":"tag-brooklyn-news","13":"tag-human-interest","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-new-york-city","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-nyc","18":"tag-ron-lee","19":"tag-top-stories","20":"tag-vod"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78493\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}