(Photo by Jimmy Jenkins - KJZZ)

It's Christmas tree cutting season, meaning people can get permits to cut down their own tannenbaum in national forests - just like Jimmy Jenkins did a few Christmases ago.

The tradition of families heading into the woods to chop down Christmas trees is alive and well in Arizona. Already, 40 percent of the permits to harvest the holiday staples are gone.

Most of the pine-tree permits went on sale last week, which has led to lines at some locations and caused the Coconino and Prescott national forests to sell out within just a few days. More than 5,100 of the nearly 13,000 permits available in Arizona have been sold.

However, the Kaibab, Coronado and Apache-Sitgreaves forests are not expected to run out of permits. The Tonto forest plans to open its ranger office in Payson on Saturday and may do so again Dec. 10 if there are remaining permits.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.