By Ashley Wiebe

Making Christmas memories for five decades

Dec 21, 2016 | 4:14 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB — A local business owner has been helping families make Christmas memories with the perfect tree for five decades.

And while a lot has changed since the 1960s, a lot has stayed the same for Victor Hausauer.

Hausauer started selling trees with his brother in Calgary at the age of 17. The two would buy the trees from reserves and sell them.

Back then, Hausauer and his brother only asked for a dollar.

“At that time we were kids. $5 was a lot of money, okay,” said Victor Hausauer, looking at old invoices, which show how many trees he sold in 1961.

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“We actually made $17.33 for a month’s work,” he said about his first year in the business.

In 1962, the brothers made just over $96.

But Hausauer hasn’t forgotten how well they did the next year.

“This is our special year,” he said, reading over his handwriting. “We made some money that year. We actually made $1,714.45.”

The 73-year-old said he remembers it so well because he sold his truck for 800 trees, but he and his brother had to cut them all down themselves.

“We went out and cut probably 150 trees or whatever,” he said. “We came back to Calgary, by the time we got to the tree lot, we had a line of cars following us.”

“People still want the fresh tree,” added Sharon, Hausauer’s wife.

At one time, Hausauer was operating 10 different lots Medicine Hat. Over the years, they’ve scaled back to just one, at the Medicine Hat Mall.

“Sales are dropping every year a little bit and it was a lot of work back then,” Hausauer said. “And I was younger. Now I’m getting older.”

More and more people are buying artificial trees and the economy has people watching their wallets, but Hausauer said that’s all been taken into account and sales this year are on par with last year.

There still a few days and a few trees left before the lot closes up for the season.

“Our sales go right up until December 24th,” Sharon said. “We’ll still have people come, buying trees.”

Despite slowing down himself, Hausauer said he’s already planning for next December.

“This year, I had to use my walker to price trees,” he said. “Next year I may have to use a wheelchair, but I’ll still be there.”