Merry Christmas!

I recently had a conversation with a fellow Farm Bureau member who grows Christmas trees. He showed me an old picture of a large blue spruce being loaded onto the back of a flatbed truck. In the picture also was a nicely painted sign, probably 4 by 8 feet, that read, “Merry Christmas President and Mrs. Johnson From: The Ohio Christmas Tree Growers, Inc.” The tree was headed to Washington, D.C., to be displayed in the Blue Room of the White House.

There had been Christmas trees in the White House for more than a century prior to the year of the picture I was shown. President Franklin Pierce was credited for bringing the first Christmas tree into the White House in 1853.

Christmas trees had been introduced in the U.S. by German settlers. Christmas trees began to be sold commercially in the United States. They were taken at random from the forests.

Due to overharvesting in the 1900s, the natural supply of evergreens began to be decimated. Conservationists became alarmed, and many magazines began to encourage people to substitute an artificial “”snow”-covered tree, consisting of a branch of a deciduous tree wrapped in cotton. President Theodore Roosevelt, worried about the destruction of the forests, did not have Christmas trees at the White House during his presidency.

Because of concern and continued demand, the first Christmas tree farm was started in 1901 when W.V. McGalliard planted 25,000 Norway spruce on his farm in New Jersey. Today, there are close to 15,000 farms growing Christmas trees in the U.S., and over 100,000 people are employed full- or part-time in the industry.

As Christmas trees were being grown in all 50 states, the development of Christmas tree associations occurred in most states, and eventually a National Christmas Tree Association was formed.

It was this national organization that created a contest to see which tree would be displayed at the White House. To qualify, growers must first win their state or regional competition. These qualifiers are then voted on by growers, industry experts and consumers to determine the winner.

The contest began in 1966 and continues to this day.

The very first winner was a balsam fir grown by Howard Pierce of Black River Falls, Wisconsin. The picture my friend showed me was of the 20-foot-tall blue spruce that won the contest in 1967. It was grown in Portage County, just north of Ravenna, by Howard M. Cowan. An Ohioan won again in 1969, a blue spruce grown by Roy R. Pierce. The only other time the award went to an Ohioan was in 1996 — another blue spruce, grown by Kenneth and Joan Scheetz.

There are approximately 25-30 million real Christmas trees sold in the U.S. every year. The National Christmas Tree Association estimates that there are close to 350 million Christmas trees currently growing on U.S. farms, and for every tree harvested for Christmas this year, one to three seedlings will be planted in the spring. The top producing states are Oregon, North Carolina, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Washington.

Back to the 1967 winner: Cowan Tree Farm was one of the farms that I inspected when I worked for the state. Pretty cool to think that I tromped around that farm once a year for the last couple of decades.

I hope you enjoyed this little history lesson and that you have a great Christmas and a blessed New Year!

Smallsreed is a member of the Trumbull County Farm Bureau and grew up on a family dairy farm in Northeast Ohio.