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Every December for the past nine years, 39-year-old Daniel Lemay has swapped his Montreal desk job for a 25-day gig hawking Christmas trees on Manhattan's Second Avenue.

For Mr. Lemay, the annual sidewalk encounters have provided a special “social fix.” And over the years, locals have anticipated the arrival of their offbeat “Christmas tree man” – not so much for his trees, as one local put it, but for the “hobnob with Daniel.”

Except this year, Mr. Lemay drove to the border and was denied entry to the United States.

“It was no-no-no all the way,” the freelance graphic designer said earlier this week, dismayed to be spending Christmas in Montreal for the first time in a decade.

Mr. Lemay's annual business trip has always begun in November, when he leaves his downtown condo, helps to harvest his tree crop in Quebec's Eastern Townships, then drives to Manhattan where he and an assistant build – and live in – a tiny but elaborate duplex complete with coloured lights, Plexiglas windows, shingles, sapling columns and even French doors.

It's a luxury suite in contrast to the abodes of his competitors, many of them French Canadians who travel to New York each Christmas season to sell trees – usually for U.S. employers – and sleep in makeshift tents or trucks. As a result, Mr. Lemay has gained a bit of a reputation.

“He's like an elf. He's even got that gleam in his eye,” said Rev. Frank Morales, associate pastor of St. Mark's Church in the Bowery on Second Avenue between 10th and 11th streets.

Mr. Lemay's setup goes in front of the Episcopalian church, and in exchange for power and use of the church's washroom, he donates 10 per cent of his earnings, giving the church about $3,000 (U.S.) each year.

But on Nov. 28, Mr. Lemay drove his pickup truck to the border in Beecher Falls, Vt. and was denied crossing. He was told, he said later, that he would be “taking jobs from Americans.”

Determined, he returned the next day carrying a 2004 New York Times article about his charisma, his distinctive hut, and the dose of holiday cheer he brings annually to his plot on Second Avenue. In his truck were a handful of Christmas trees (his full load of about 1,000 trees was to be shipped days later).

“Then things got nasty,” Mr. Lemay said. Over the next few hours, Mr. Lemay says, he was photographed, fingerprinted and grilled on everything from the North American free-trade agreement to the religious significance of Christmas trees.

“They said, your trees can go, but you cannot go,” Mr. Lemay said.

Even his offer to hire Americans to sell his trees while he supervised was rejected, he said.

Theodore Woo, chief of public affairs for the Boston office of Customs and Border Protection, said he couldn't discuss individual cases for privacy reasons. But he said all Canadians need official paperwork if they want to sell trees in the United States.

“A person that's coming in to sell items, such as Christmas trees, would need a work visa,” he said.

Mr. Lemay didn't have a work permit, but says he has a right to conduct his business under NAFTA. He adds that he hasn't needed a work permit in previous years.

David Sweet, president of the Northeastern Christmas Tree Association of Nova Scotia, said he hadn't heard of any other Canadian trees – or sellers – being rejected by U.S. customs officials this year.

“I do know you do have to get your paperwork all in order to get your trees across the border,” he said. “If it's not in order, you're going to have trouble.”

Canadian tree growers who ship their trees in the larger U.S. market have had to grapple with a different sort of problem this season: the soaring loonie. Because growers are paid in U.S. dollars, some reported their revenue has dropped as much as 15 per cent this year.

After being turned away, Mr. Lemay acted fast, selling his trees to another Quebec grower who then called a retired Christmas tree farmer from the Catskill Mountains, and asked him to take over Mr. Lemay's spot in front of St. Mark's Church. The seller recently told a New York Times reporter that he agreed to do so “as a favour to a friend.”

“It's not the same,” Mr. Morales said. “I've had a few people just in the last few days saying, ‘What can we do? How can we get [Mr. Lemay] back?” Meantime, Mr. Lemay is bunking at his girlfriend's home in a Montreal suburb. (He had rented out his downtown condo, expecting to be in Manhattan for all of December.) He calculates he's lost $5,000 (Canadian) in business expenses.

His next step, he says, is to consult Canadian customs officials and make sure he makes it across the border next year.

More than anything, he misses New York.

“The rest of the year I'm mostly behind the computer,” he said. “When I go to New York, I live this unique experience of being on the sidewalk for 25 days, 24 nights in a row. I miss it … I'm kind of at a loss this year.”