Children dashing among fir trees and imagining the beautiful decorations that will adorn the branches makes for timeless holiday memories. North Whidbey Island offers a variety of locations to find the perfect Christmas tree.
A Knot in Thyme features the entire holiday experience with draft horse-drawn wagon rides through the forest on weekends.
“It’s a circuitous route around the farm and Victorian carolers sing carols with them on the wagon and pass out candy canes,” said Wendy Rawls, whose family runs A Knot in Thyme. Her children dress up in Dickens-era costumes to sing.
After a scenic ride through the forest and around the holly orchard, the wagon stops at the back of the farm where families can choose from a variety of pre-cut trees. Noble, Grand and Fraser firs ranging in size from tabletop to 11-feet tall and cost from $29 to $75. Rawls’ son hauls the trees back while the family can climb up on the wagon and enjoy the ride to the shop.
From their holly orchard, the Rawls’ make wreaths, A Knot in Thyme’s specialty. They sell holly wreaths, bulk holly and plan to make garlands and swags, Rawls said.
Along with nature-inspired gifts and everything lavender, visitors will find cider and cookies in the shop to add to the holiday memories.
“Our goal is for everybody to have the nicest experience possible when they come here. We like to be part of making their holiday wonderful. Come on out for a good family time,” Rawls said.
A Knot in Thyme is located at 4233 DeGraff Road, north of Oak Harbor. For information, call 240-1216.
Oak Harbor stores from Home Depot to Rite Aid to the Greenhouse Florist and Nursery will sell pre-cut trees through the holidays but the Oak Harbor Lions Club, set up next to the Oak Harbor Chamber of Commerce, will use the proceeds to benefit the community.
The Lions Club has been selling trees for more than 20 years. This year, they have Noble, Douglas, Grand, Fraser and Nordman fir trees ranging in size from 4 to 9- feet tall, all from Deming.
They have more than 600 trees for sale this year and usually sell them all, said Porter Baldridge, Christmas tree chairman for the Oak Harbor Lions Club.
“God bless our return customers. We’ve had people who buy for years come back by,” Baldridge said.
The tree lot is open every day from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. through Dec. 23 or until the trees are sold out.
“Every nickel we raise here goes back into the community,” Baldridge said.
The tree lot is located at 32630 Hwy. 20 in Oak Harbor.
With the unexpected closure of WoodBee Tree Farm, Hennrich Tree Farm on Hastie Lake Road is the place to go for you-cut trees on North Whidbey. With so many people purchasing trees there, owner Lisa Hennrich Boyer said she isn’t sure they’ll be able to stay open all season.
“We do, as tree farmers, have to manage our crop and we can’t sell out the whole crop in one season,” Hennrich Boyer said, adding, “It’s not that we have a shortage, it’s just that we have to manage that, as any farmers do.”
“We have been continuing to plant trees over the years so we will have trees in the future. We don’t intend to sell them all in one season or quit doing this for awhile. We need to manage the inventory in order to have trees for future years,” Hennrich Boyer explained.
