Something magical happens every November at the Mission. Almost overnight, it becomes a Christmas village with hundreds of fresh evergreen trees, dozens of wreaths and yards of greenery. That transformation is the handiwork of a team of local Boy Scouts and Mission volunteers led by Tom Dix.
It happens quickly, but it’s been years in the making. Dix can trace his interest in Christmas trees back to his high school days on the North Shore of Chicago, where he organized his first sale to raise money for scholarships. In fact, some of the connections made all those years ago came into play again in 2012, when Dix proposed a Christmas Tree Sale at the Mission.
The trees and greenery sold at the Mission come from a few very carefully selected farms. The Frasier Firs and White Pines come from Virginia, the Balsams from Wisconsin and the greenery and wreaths from Oregon. Relying on the relationships he’s built over time with the growers, Dix orders the trees about a year in advance to insure that the Mission will have just the right mix of types and sizes of trees. Considering that the trees are seven to nine years old, come from several distant states and must be unloaded, displayed and sold in a three-week window between Thanksgiving and mid-December, it’s easy to see why an annual tree sale takes a lot of advance planning.
Compounding these logistics is the standard of freshness that’s become the hallmark of the Mission tree sale. By relying on a small set of like-minded vendors, the sale planners know that the trees sold at the Mission are cut within one day of being loaded on the truck to Kansas City. That means that the trees on the Mission lot are the freshest trees in the area. Drawing one deep breath in the middle of the Mission lot would convince even Scrooge himself; it’s the unmistakable, unforgettable scent of Christmas.
These fresher trees not only have that wonderful Christmas smell, they hold their needles — and your precious ornaments — longer than trees from big corporate farms where trees are sometimes cut several months before shipment.
The Oregon craftspeople who make the wreaths, garlands and tabletop arrangements offered at the sale start their work a little earlier than the tree cutters. They gather the branches by hand, then carefully shape and wire each wreath to create just the right blend of textures and shades of green. Their handiwork is meticulous and each wreath is a distinct work of art.
The Mission tree sale has grown from a few hundred trees in 2012 to over 700 trees last year. That growth came from word-of-mouth referrals; loyal customers are the best promoters – and thanks to our chatty customers we’ve sold out every year. To reserve a guaranteed fresh Mission tree or wreath, consider placing an advance order through the Christmas in July sale on the Mission website (shawneeindianmission.org)
