The weather is frightful but our trees are delightful!

Although the weather may be frightful the Christmas trees are still delightful. Rain won’t stop Santa from donning his suit so get out your rain coat and put on your boots. Rains may come and rains may go but we pretend the mud is snow!


-Matt Reese

MERRY CHRISTMAS

The 2011 Christmas tree season is off to a start! We hope to see many of you at the farm this weekend. We are excited to see all of our usual customers and hope to meet many new families too. It looks like a great day so bundle up, put on your boots and bring some merry cheer our way!
Come hungry too! Word has it there are over 800 cut-out cookies so if that is your tradition there should be a good supply this year. If you want to add to your family tradition there should be plenty for you too.

Jingle all the way to Kaleidoscope Farms

“Jingle-bells, Jingle-bells, Jingle all the way,


Oh, what fun it is to ride a one-horse open sleigh…”

“Wait, mom, wait. What is a one-horse open sleigh?”

“Oh, well, I think it means that one horse is pulling a sleigh with an open top.”

“Oh, OK.”

“O'er the fields we go, laughing all the way

Bells on bobtail ring…”

“Mom, what is a bellsonbob-tail?”

“Ummm…Well…Uh…I’m not really sure. You know what, let’s load up and go to Kaleidoscope Farms, I bet they’ll know there. They have horses and a sleigh with bells.”

“Alright mom, that sounds great!”

Kaleidoscope Farms offers all of the charm of an old fashioned Christmas, complete with a horse drawn open sleigh when the snow falls and bells ringing on their bobbed tails. The country charm is easy to see in the beautiful rural Hancock county setting for the farm and the rows of carefully manicured Christmas trees spreading out in every direction. After a pleasant winter stroll, guests are welcome to warm up in the cozy, wood fired warm gift shop that has been dramatically expanded and remodeled for 2011. There are more shopping options than ever before along with our hand made wreaths and greens, home baked cookies and cinnamon rolls and complimentary hot cider.

“We want the people who take time to come out here and share the holidays with our family to find the wonderful Christmas atmosphere they usually can only sing about in all of the old Christmas carols,” said Dave Reese, owner of Kaleidoscope Farms. “Out here they won’t find a shopping mall or a traffic jam, just a simple country Christmas experience on the farm. Hopefully, the weather will cooperate and we’ll even have some snow for the horses to pull the sleigh.”

Kaleidoscope Farms offers 10 varieties of fir, pine and spruce trees, dug trees, tree delivery and plenty of decorations to Deck the Halls. Celebrate the First Noel this year with a White Christmas in the Winter Wonderland at the farm complete with Jingle Bells, Silver Bells and Holly and the Ivy.

Veteran's Day and Operation Evergreen

We get to celebrate Veteran’s Day in a special way on my family’s Christmas tree farm in Hancock County. We participate in the Operation Evergreen Program that sends around 300 Christmas trees, complete with handmade ornaments, to troops stationed overseas for the holidays. On the Sunday prior to Veteran’s Day, we invite area veterans to come and select three or four Christmas trees from the farm to cut for this purpose. Local elementary students, high schools students and community groups also visited the farm to present the ornaments they have made to the veterans. This year there were well over 3,000 ornaments brought to the farm. The trees and ornaments then go from our farm to the Ohio Department of Agriculture where they are inspected and shipped off to Iraq, Afghanistan or wherever else U.S. troops are serving.

Each year we have done this, our Grandpa Franklin Deeds has been a part of the ceremony. He served in World War II in the Invasion of Normandy and the Battle of the Bulge and, throughout our lives he has demonstrated the epitome of a soldier’s sacrifice in everything he has done. He mostly remains quiet about the horrors of war that he saw in his service to our country, preferring to spend his time working on the farm and helping friends and family with anything asked of him.

With so much sacrifice from so many veterans in this country, it is an honor to play a small part in the Operation Evergreen program that offers just a simple reminder of home for those currently serving.

And, on this Veteran’s Day, we want to say thank you Grandpa, and all veterans, for your incredible sacrifice for this wonderful country.