COLUMBUS — The owners of Whitehouse Christmas Tree Farm, Duke and Martha Wheeler, have a lot to be happy about.
Grand slam
Their operation won the Ohio Christmas tree producer’s grand slam by earning first place awards for their pine, spruce and fir trees exhibited at the 2009 Ohio State Fair as well as the grand champion and reserve champion trees at the fair.
The Wheelers entered three trees in the contest. Their Concolor Fir took grand champion tree in this year’s contest as well as first place in the single needle tree variety. Their Blue Spruce earned reserve champion honors.
During the entire process special coded tags provided by Ohio Christmas Tree Association identified all entries. It was not until after all entries were evaluated and prizes were awarded that the tree owners were identified.
National contest
By winning Ohio’s contest, Whitehouse Christmas Tree Farm now qualifies to send trees to the National Christmas Tree Association’s contest, being held at the 2010 National Christmas Tree Association Summer Meeting.
If they win this contest, they will receive the honor of supplying the White House Christmas tree. The last time an Ohio producer won national honors was the Scheetz Christmas Tree Farm near Coshocton in 1992.
More information
For more information on the Whitehouse Christmas Tree Farm visit www.whitehousetreefarm.com. More information on all Ohio Christmas trees can be found at www.ohiochristmastree.com.
I love Christmas, the run up to it is my favorite part. Last year I ended up spending so much, I really can’t do that this year. I like to be well prepared so have already got a plan and made a list of what I am going to buy my family. I am going to make my own christmas tree decorations from cookie dough, my guests can choose which are their favorites to take home. I have many friends who live abroad so I am going to send them xmas cards online for free rather so I save money on postage. I like collecting holly leaves from my garden and use them to decorate picture frames around the house. Looks really festive.