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December 14, 2009

Making memories: In search of Christmas tree traditions

By Marjorie Hopkins

I’m a little disappointed it’s not snowing. But it is a beautiful sunny day. The air has a nice winter bite to it and it’s the Friday after Thanksgiving, commonly called Black Friday — the day retailers’ profits are the highest in the year and if their bottom line has been in the red, this day will put it in the black.

I’m up early, ready to go — but not to fight the traditional crowds hurrying and scurrying for holiday bargains. I’m off to a Christmas tree farm somewhere north of Terre Haute searching for a story on the family tradition of getting a fresh Christmas tree. As I’m on my way, I’m thinking about my childhood and the old-fashioned cedar trees my dad would cut from our farm. We used the huge Christmas light bulbs — none of these little LED lights of today! Nope. Fresh tree. Cedar scent. Sticky fingers from the tree gum. Big, big lights that if one went out, they all went out, and a menagerie of ornaments, some handmade, all collected over the years. My favorite part was putting on those glittering silver tinsel “icicles.” So many traditions. So many good memories.

That’s what I’m looking for today. I’m hoping that at least one family is out making memories and not in some store pawing through bargain sweaters and fighting over electronics. But everyone usually has a story, and sometimes the story comes unexpectedly, from a source you’re not thinking about. Today, that’s what happens.

I arrive at Trinity Christmas Tree Farm and no customers are there yet. I’m greeted by the sight of a stable-like building, three young girls working outside the building with white pine branches, crimping them together in the first wreath made at the farm this Christmas season. A huge hill of pines is to my right, and the smell of earth is refreshing. If the temperature was just a couple of degrees lower, I’d be able to see my breath.

Straw on the ground around the “stable” building makes me think back farther than even my childhood. It reminds me of a scene I’ve seen in my mind and one that is recorded in history some 2,009 years ago. There’s a donkey next to the stable, and the only thing that brings me back to the realities of today is the four-wheeler parked a short distance away.

I’m assured the crowds will be here later. Right now they must still be shopping. The tree is apparently on their list for later that day.

I’m hopeful this tradition is still around.



I quickly find I’m not disappointed as I first thought I would be when I see no customers early at the tree farm. I’ve found I’ve walked right into a family tradition. The story isn’t where I expected it to be. And it’s even better than I expected.

The Hutchinson family is hard at work — all of them. It’s a family tradition. They’ve already cut down their tree — that’s their Thanksgiving Day tradition. Today their tradition continues as they work as a family at the tree farm.

The Trinity Christmas Tree Farm stems from the dream of a little boy. “I’ve wanted to do this ever since I was 10 years-old,” owner Kent Hutchinson said. He remembers his family’s tradition of getting a fresh tree every year. It was something he always loved.

Their Christmas trees usually came from the farm like mine did, but he said he remembers one specific year when they stopped at a retail Christmas tree lot and he wanted a $6 tree, which was more than his parents wanted to spend. They got it, Hutchinson said, “I think because I begged,” he laughed.

He also reminisces about a tree farm in Vermillion, Ill., where the pines were planted on a hillside. “You had to walk way back to them,” he said. “I remember an older man in a flannel jacket. There was just something neat about it.” He said he thinks that’s the time he first wanted to own a Christmas tree farm. At 16, he recalls planting some pines in the corner lot of the farm — just to make things look prettier. “I’ve just always liked trees.”



The land we’re standing on has been passed down through the family, about a hundred acres of it. Most of it has been in the family since 1836. There are five acres of trees and nearly 5,000 trees, including Scotch pine, white pine, Colorado blue spruce and Douglas fir. Hutchinson says they sell more than 300 trees a year for Christmas. He planted the first trees in 1995.

“It takes six to seven years for pines to grow to the size to sell,” he said. But Trinity Christmas Tree Farm opened a year earlier than expected. “After9/11, I was in the mood to get in a good mood, so we opened a year early.”

Although Hutchinson currently works full-time at Sony DADC, he has future dreams for the tree farm. “I always wanted a woodworking shop. I’d like to make toys, pottery and candles to sell here. Maybe put on a red suit,” he laughed. But for now, the Christmas tree farm offers a few decorations for sale, along with the handmade pine wreaths. And it all takes a lot of work.

“I couldn’t do it without the help of the family,” Hutchinson said. That includes wife, Millie, eldest daughter Estacia, Charis and her husband Jeremy Bales, and the younger siblings Mariah and Abriel. Even grandchildren Hannah and the youngest, 1-1/2-year-old Chaylee Bales, are outside with the rest, continuing the tradition into the next generation.



The Trinity Christmas Tree farm has a lot of repeat business, Hutchinson said, and even though their Christmas Tree Farm motto was determined years ago, it couldn’t fit this story better. It is: “Growing family traditions with that perfect tree year after year.”

And as if on cue, a customer arrives. It’s the Thompson family back for their fifth year and fifth tree from the farm. It’s a family tradition that started with Jenni’s family and she wanted to continue it when she married Erick. So, their 10-year-old son Lance selected a huge white pine and is on his stomach sawing its trunk with a hand saw.

Erick finishes the job, and the tree is ready to be taken by wagon down the hill, shaken to get the dead needles out, and then baled in netting for easy handling and transporting — and to make it easy get it through the doors, Hutchinson reminds me.

Erick will set up the tree, then Lance and Jenni will decorate it — that’s tradition, they explain to me. It will have ornaments from everything and everywhere — from Star Trek to SpongeBob. “It’s a collection of ornaments over the years,” Jenni says. “It’s very eclectic.” It’s very traditional.

I watch the Thompson family pack up their tree and drive away. Christmas music is faintly playing from within the “stable,” Charis and Jeremy are placing a string of lights on the stable’s roof, and Mariah is baling the younger Abriel in the Christmas tree netting. I’m finding it hard to leave. I think I like trees, too. Or maybe family traditions. Maybe just the good will and peace that Christmastime brings. I’m so thankful I came in search of family traditions on this Black Friday.

Take the time to bring your family out, walk among the pines, choose that perfect Christmas tree, and continue — or start — some family traditions.

Oh! And the cost of the fresh cut trees? $35 for Scotch and white pine, $45 for Douglas fir and blue spruce, tax included. The fresh Christmas tree tradition? Priceless!



Wabash Valley Christmas tree farms

• Trinity Christmas Tree Farm:

Where: 10860 Hutchinson Road, about 9 miles north of Terre Haute on Indiana 63. Turn right on Trinity Avenue (known as the Shepardsville turn off). Go about ¼ mile east. Turn right onto Hutchinson Road and go ¼ mile south. Follow signs.

Hours: From 4 to 5:30 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday through Dec. 20.

Call: (765) 548-2716

More tree farms

• Honeywood Pines Tree Farm:

Where: 6177 S. Indiana 63

Call: (812) 299-9795

• Wagoner Christmas Tree Farm: Choose and cut Scotch pine, white pine, Douglas fir

Where: 2148N CR 440W, Greencastle. Go 1½ mile north of Greencastle on U.S. 231, then west on CR 200 for 3½ miles. Follow signs.

Hours: 9 a.m. to dark through Dec. 24.

Call: (765) 739-6135

• Star Tree Farm: Choose and cut Christmas trees, greens, wreaths, garland.

Where: 1051 Gannon Road, West Terre Haute. Go north on U.S. 150 out of West Terre Haute for ½ mile, turn at first left and follow signs.

Hours: Weekends to Christmas, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Tree sizes: 4 to 12 feet

Call: (812) 533-2639

• Holiday Hill Tree Farm: Choose and cut trees, hot chocolate, coffee, tree shaking, tree baling and a disposal bag are all free with the purchase of a tree.

Where: 3021 E. Feree Drive on the south end of Terre Haute. From Springhill Road, follow the signs east.

Hours: 4 p.m. to dark Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to dark Saturday and noon to dark on Sunday. Or, visit the farm at any time and use the honor box posted near the saws on the bird house pole; www.4Atree.com.

Tree sizes: 4 to 9 feet

Call: (812) 299-7070

• Fortenbery Christmas Tree Farm: Choose and cut from a selection of Scotch pine, white pine and Douglas fir. Sit by the bonfire and roast marshmallows while they shake and bale the tree you pick out.

Where: 14 miles north of the Vigo County Courthouse on U.S. 41. Look for the Christmas tree sign just past mile marker 125, one half mile south of Lyford.

Hours: 9 a.m. to dark Friday through Sunday.

Call: (765) 832-3960

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