Don’t be fooled by the seasonal decor -- renting living Christmas trees is a year-round business.

Tucked off Highway 1, behind the tall Monterey pines that line the road near Point Lobos State Natural Reserve, live hundreds of Christmas trees. They are lined up in plastic pots, fed by drip irrigation lines strung along metal stakes, awaiting their raison d’être stipulated on a name tag tied to the tree – a 30-day starring role in the living room of, say, Jenn in Los Altos or Dave in Pacific Grove.

This is Rent a Living Christmas Tree, a company that will, as the name suggests, rent you a live evergreen to grace your home during the holidays.

Here’s how it works: The website (rentxmastree.com) opens Oct. 1. The company offers Douglas fir, Deodar cedar, Nordmann fir and California redwood in sizes ranging from just three feet to 13 feet. Prices are based on size and variety and run between $35 for the smallest and around $300 for the largest for a 30-day rental. Once you’ve selected your tree type and size (you can do it online, no need to leave the house), you can sit back and relax until delivery starts the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Your tree will be delivered to your door on a chosen date and picked up a month later. Simple, convenient, environmentally friendly – no more scratches on the top of your car, no more chopping down a perfectly good evergreen.

Monica Hudson started this company in 2009 after watching a TV program featuring a British plant nursery owner who would rent trees to his customers for the holidays. That’s a good idea, she thought. Walking among the trees on an overcast day in December, with her white hair, infectious smile and bright red company jacket, Hudson cuts a perfect eco-friendly Lady Claus-type figure. But while she admits that she’s always loved plants and gardening, running a Christmas tree company wasn’t always the plan – Hudson is a professional tour guide and author of two books in the Arcadia Publishing Images of America series, on Point Lobos and Carmel-by-the-Sea.

Still, together with business partner Celerino Esparza, Hudson has embraced the lifestyle. Because unlike with cut Christmas trees, her work isn’t over Dec. 25. “You’re never really off,” Hudson says. “I am jealous of the people that sell cut trees.”

Once all the trees are back in the nursery after their time in the spotlight, they may need to be repotted, trimmed, etc. During the “off-season” (from roughly Jan. 10 through Oct. 1), Hudson says, she works an average of one to two days a week doing tree maintenance. Taking good care of the trees pays off in that they can have a long and fruitful career – “many of the trees are 15 to 20 years old,” Hudson says. Some of her redwoods have been in circulation since the business started in 2009 – and yes, some customers do specifically request the same tree year after year.

She’s always learning, Hudson says, and that’s the best bit. “Because we grow trees in pots we are dependent on trees that don’t mind being in a pot,” she says, rattling off other facts about the various trees – redwoods grow fast; Deodar cedars require a lot of pruning because they really don’t like to grow in the classic conical shape; yes they did try cypress but customers didn’t like them.

Initially, most trees were rented locally. But as the business grew, and online retail became de rigeur, her customer geography expanded. Now, most trees go to Silicon Valley. “The convenience factor is huge, especially in the Bay Area,” Hudson says. (It’s too inconvenient to deliver to San Francisco, but if she did, she says, that’s where all the trees would go.)

A week into December, nearly all trees that have been deemed big enough (roughly the five-year mark) and pretty enough have already been delivered. In one area, Esparza and his father Jesus put the finishing trimming touches on trees gathered in groups under handwritten signs (“Seaside,” “Del Rey Oaks”) that speak to their eventual destination, almost as though they’re waiting at a bus stop. All in all, Hudson says, they’ll rent about 600 trees this year.

“We are going to rent every single tree here that’s not too crazy-looking,” she says.