Among the many peculiar holiday traditions (fig pudding? Sailing?), the strangest one is spraying small trees with a mixture of binder and cellulose fibers to satisfy our desire for a white Christmas.

This happens when you decorate a tree with artificial snow, which is called flocking. However, when decorated and lit, a swarming Christmas tree has a beautiful and warm sense of nostalgia. Here is how professionals create this Christmas miracle.  

As early as the 1800s, we used substances such as flour or cotton to make the snowflakes on the Christmas tree look longer than you think. "Popular Mechanics" published in 1929 recommended varnish, corn starch and silicate mineral mica flakes. 

But as we know, tree flocking really became popular in the late 1950s and 1960s, along with aluminum trees and other dazzling (if not natural-looking) decorations from the post-war boom. General Mills sells the Sno-Flok household kit, which is applied with a gun mounted on a vacuum cleaner.

Tom Leonard, owner of Peak Seasons, said that this household item is not so popular these days, and the company is one of the country's largest manufacturers of Christmas tree plots and tree clusters. However, flocking itself retains a certain degree of attractiveness. "Sunbelt State uses it a lot because there is no snow," Leonard told Mental Floss. "It is very popular. The West Coast, South and Southeast, most of them are sold in these areas."

So what exactly is flocking? Essentially, flocking means attaching tiny fibers to the surface to create texture (this process is also used in fashion, home decoration, and crafts). The peak season formula includes pulp as fiber, corn starch as binder, and boron as flame retardant-flocking has safety advantages.

The company made a lot of money from it. Leonard said they are the largest flock manufacturer in the United States and Europe. "I don't want to share [how much], but we sell a lot of sheep. I mean trucks and trucks."

Headquartered in sunny riverside, California, the peak season starts with paper and grinders. "It's like a large roll of toilet paper, weighing a ton, and you feed it into the machine, and it turns into powder," Leonard said. The exception is certain bright colors-flocking white, black, pink, ice blue, royal blue, red, green, gold, and purple-they need cotton fiber instead of paper to hold the dye. The final product is almost like baby powder, packed in large bags the size of cement bags and shipped to all parts of the country.

From there you need to stick these things on a beautiful uniform coat, which is where flocking machines like Mighty Sno-Blower come in. They are basically large tanks that hold different numbers of flocks according to the model, plus a mechanism bottom to make the powder fluffy. The machine then pumps the powder through the hose, and the gun at the end mixes it with the water mist.

This is how the herd is born.

You don't need to use professional flockers, or even artificial flocking. There are various DIY recipes, including things like soap flakes and even dried coconut flakes. But if you really become a professional player, you will hope to get help from someone like Paul Iantosca, who has been planting trees in the Boston area for 20 years.

Flock a tree with bright purple (white is still the most popular), and Iantosca first sprays it with water. Then, in an area enclosed with plastic sheeting, he activated the blower to blow the tree evenly with the mist that looked like purple. Things are everywhere. He wears a mask to prevent it from entering his nose, but some large-scale flocking workers wear full protective clothing. 

The tricky part of flocking is that you won't know if you are doing it right until it dries. When it continued, it was cold and damp like a paste. But as it dries, the Christmas magic begins to work, and it swells up and turns into fluffy white (or, in this case, purple) fluff, sticking firmly to the needle.

Of course, there are also pitfalls. Without enough water, the flock fell off and made a mess. The flocked tree will not get wet a second time. "It won't do it anymore. It's actually disgusting," Iantosca said. In addition, when you gather a tree, the color will highlight its flaws. A simple tree became a strange, jagged shrub.

But if you do it right and string it with lights, you will have a real stunner in your hands. For the past 10 years, Iantosca has been planting trees for his home, and his children will not let him go back.

"When you plug in that thing, it will definitely glow in it," he said. "It's incredible."

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