A Nevada County farm running since 1956 with no entrance fee and individually tagged prices per tree, running daily through Christmas Eve once the post-Thanksgiving stretch begins.
Individually tagged prices per tree ("what you see is what you pay"); no baseline figure found.
McBurney Tree Farm has been a family tradition in Grass Valley since 1956, and one detail in its own materials stands out plainly: the farm explicitly states there’s no entrance or parking fee. That’s worth calling out directly, since some competing farms — even within this same research batch — charge just to get onto the property before you’ve picked a single tree. At McBurney, you walk in free and pay only for the tree you leave with.
Rather than a flat rate or a simple per-foot formula, McBurney tags each tree individually — described on the farm’s own site as “what you see is what you pay.” That’s a fundamentally different pricing model from the flat-$80-regardless-of-size approach used at some other farms in this research: instead of one number applying to every tree, cost varies based on the specific tree’s size, shape, and species. The upside is transparency once you’re standing in the field — the price is right there on the tag, no guessing. The downside is that there’s no honest baseline figure to give you before you arrive, since the whole point of the system is that each tree is priced on its own.
Visitors have real flexibility here: cut your own tree, or ask staff to do the cutting for you. That’s a meaningful option if you’re bringing young kids you don’t want handling a saw, or if you’d simply rather not do the physical work yourself. It’s a step beyond the pure u-cut-only model some competing farms use.
The farm’s site describes a recurring pattern: weekends only in the stretch before Thanksgiving, then daily hours (9am-5pm) once the season moves into full swing, running through Christmas Eve. This record resolves that recurring “open daily through Christmas Eve” language to a 2026-12-24 close, though the exact pre-Thanksgiving weekend start dates for 2026 weren’t specified on the site as fetched. Once you’re past Thanksgiving, the daily schedule gives more flexibility than farms limited to just a few days a week.
Payment methods (cash, card, or both) and specific tree species were referenced on the site’s FAQ page according to the source, but weren’t returned in the content actually fetched during this research. If either matters to your planning, a call to 530-273-2779 will get you a direct answer faster than searching further online.
McBurney combines a genuinely fee-free entry policy with 70 years of family history and real flexibility on who does the cutting, but its individually-tagged pricing model means there’s no way to know your total cost until you’ve found the specific tree you want.
Weekends before Thanksgiving, then daily through Christmas Eve, per the farm's own recurring schedule — resolved here to a 2026-12-24 close, with the pre-Thanksgiving weekend start dates not specified. Daily 9am-5pm hours once in full swing give more flexibility than farms limited to a few days a week.
Not stated in the record.
Not stated directly in the record.
The farm explicitly states no entrance or parking fee, per the record — a differentiator from farms that charge a gate fee before tree shopping begins.
Not addressed in the source.
Skip McBurney if you want a guaranteed baseline price ahead of time, since trees are individually tagged rather than priced by a flat rate or simple per-foot formula, meaning cost varies tree to tree.
The record notes McBurney is in the same Nevada County / Grass Valley area as Ott's Tree Farm & Produce and Rainbow Ridge Christmas Tree Farm, both also covered in this research.
Prices are individually tagged per tree — "what you see is what you pay," per the record — so no single baseline figure applies. No entrance or parking fee is charged, however.
No — the record explicitly states there's no entrance or parking fee, a differentiator from farms that charge a gate fee.
No — visitors can cut their own tree or ask staff to do it for them, per the record, offering more flexibility than pure u-cut-only farms.
Since 1956, per the record — a family tradition spanning multiple generations.
2026 dates had not been published when we last checked. In past seasons it has run: Daily (weekends before Thanksgiving, daily after Thanksgiving through Christmas Eve). Check with the farm before driving out.
Pricing was not published when we last checked. Individually tagged prices per tree ("what you see is what you pay"); no baseline figure found.
Yes. It's cut-your-own and choose-and-cut (staff cuts it for you), and a saw is provided.
11197 Cedar Ridge Drive, Grass Valley, CA, in Nevada County. It is one of 7 farms we track in Sierra Foothills CA.
We track 7 farms in Sierra Foothills CA, 7 of which let you cut your own tree. The farm has not published a starting price, so it cannot be compared on cost — call before you budget.
One caveat worth repeating: this farm had not published its 2026 dates when we last checked, while 2 of the 7 farms we track in Sierra Foothills CA had. Treat any date you see elsewhere as last year's until the farm confirms it.
There are 2 other farms we track in Nevada County. All Sierra Foothills CA farms →
mcburneytreefarm.com
Checked September 2026.