On a sunny Saturday afternoon at the Green Forest Christmas Tree Farm in Lecompton, Keith and Sonja Pittrich searched for this year’s tree.

“That one’s out,” said Sonja, pointing to a nice looking pine that could fool an amateur Christmas tree hunter.

The reason? A crooked trunk, which would make keeping the tree upright and straight nearly impossible in their Shawnee home.

Sonja joked that a young couple, perhaps out on their first Christmas tree hunt, would pick the tree for its full branches and tall height, only to learn the hard way that a straight trunk is a necessity.

The Pittriches have been picking out Christmas trees for more than 20 years.

“When I was a kid, we always did this,” said Keith, who has carried on the tradition with their own two children. “I’ve never had a fake tree.”

With all those years of experience, Keith says he can size up a Christmas tree pretty quickly. In addition to a straight trunk, he looks for one with the right height — about 8 feet — that doesn’t have too many missing branches.

Each tree hunter has his or her own particular specifications, said Green Forest co-owner Jim Myers.

“There’s no rhyme nor reason,” Myers said of the tree wishes expressed by the thousands of buyers he’s seen in 16 years in the business.

Some want a tall tree, some want a wide tree. Some look for the “perfect” tree, while some want the more scrawny and bare “Charlie Brown Christmas tree” look.

But Myers’ basic advice to customers is to pick a tree fits their space. Most important, though, is enjoying the family experience, he said.

As Myers reminisced about his years at the farm, a young couple — perhaps hoping to start their own Christmas tree hunting tradition — backed their pickup truck near the needle-shaking machine. The tree farm crew then “netted” the handsome-looking tree selected by the couple, and loaded in it the bed of the truck.

Sonja Pittrich walks past and eyes the younger couple, then their prized tree.

With a smile she says, “They got the one with the crooked trunk.”