Christmas Farm by Mary Lyn Ray and Barry Root

This is an awesome book about a Christmas Tree farm. I love Christmas tree farms. I drove past one everyday on the way to college and thought it was lovely. For some reason, they never cut the trees down, so now it is a farm full of balsam and spruce. Which is pretty too. 

I love this book. 

At the end of one summer, Wilma felt the gardeners urge for something different. But what?

In December, Wilma headed to her back hill to find her perfect Christmas tree.

But Wilma wondered what do people do who do not have a back hill?

Hm......

Wilma decided to order sixty-two dozen starts of balsam.  But to plant all of them, she would need some help.

 Enter Parker, stage right.

 (Or is that left? I always forget if the stage is from the audience's view or the actors....) 

Parker is Wilma's five-year old next door neighbor, the same age as the balsam starts.

Wilma's hill planted with the balsam.

Summers and winters go by. They do about a two page spread a year. Having the neighbor boy Parker there really gives kids a sense of time passing. He was five when the trees came. He helped plant them that year. The next year, when he was six, he helped weed between the trees.

When he was seven, Wilma got a tractor. Fascinating!

When he was eight, he could count high enough to count all the trees.

Every winter, trees are lost to mice, deer, and moose. But only a small amount of the 62 dozen die. 

When Parker was nine, they shaped the trees for people who like rounded trees.

Finally when Parker was 10, they make a sign "Trees for sale."

And the trees are taken away. Some singularly, others all bunched together in a big truck bound for the city. 

After the rush, Wilma and Parker go up the hill to choose their trees. 

Aren't they cozy pictures? I love them.

Parker brings his tree home

Wilma brings her's home. 

And after Christmas, they look through the seed catalogs for more balsam starts. 

I think all little boys should have a Wilma next door. With cozy houses, doughnuts, and big, consuming projects. 

At the end of the book, there is a page of information about balsams and how they grow. 

Isn't this a fun book? Or maybe that is just the botanist geek in me talking. I LOVE THIS BOOK.