“It's pretty intense, yes. It's our Super Bowl if you will”.
Jessica Korson and her husband Rex own Korson’s Tree Farms in Montcalm County’s Sidney Township. They won in their sixth year of competition with a special blue spruce.
“It was what the industry calls ‘a shiner.’ It was very silver-blue, so it really stood out. Most other places had firs, but the tree kind of had that ‘it’ factor.”
Competition trees are between six and eight feet tall so that blue spruce isn’t the exact tree that will travel to Washington DC for Christmas.
“The White House will send their Head Usher and their Superintendent of Grounds to our farm in late September/early October, and they will select the tree that they want. It's going to go in the Blue Room at the White House, so it has to be, I believe, 18 1/2 feet tall. They pull the chandelier down in that room and all the power comes from the ceiling so that tree has to hit at the top of the ceiling.”
The Korsons will travel to the nation’s capital too.
“We get to go! We don't have all the details yet, but we believe it's like the Monday before Thanksgiving. Our tree will actually be brought in by horse-drawn carriage, and the First Lady will greet us and accept the tree. We don't know if the President will be there yet, usually it's just the First Lady, but you never know.”
Korson’s doesn’t sell trees to the public but Jessica says the recognition is great marketing for their commercial farm.
“Nobody from Michigan has won Grand Champion since 1984 and we’ll be the third tree ever from Michigan.”
The Korsons took first place in the state competition too, so they’ll be taking trees and wreaths to the Michigan governor’s residence this year as well.
Christmas trees are big business in the state. According to the Michigan Ag Council, Michigan ranks third in the nation in the number of Christmas trees harvested, supplying approximately 2 million fresh Christmas trees to the national market each year, and offering nine varieties of tree, more than any other state.
For every Christmas tree harvested, Michigan Christmas tree farmers plant three more for future harvests.
