Rockin’ around a Colorado-grown Christmas tree means seeing all the other dancers, thanks to the lanky limbs unencumbered by fistfuls of green needles.
“I like the Colorado trees,” writes Theresa Hendrickson of Golden, one of about two dozen contestants for the 2009 Colorado Forest Products/Colorado Sunday native tree decorating competition.
“They remind me very much of the Christmas trees we had when I grew up in Germany: Scraggly, not bushy, with open branches. You are able to hang more ornaments this way.”
Some of the most innovative decorations came from Colorado schools. Several submitted photos of trees resplendent with ornaments made from plastic shopping bags, yogurt containers, juice cans and other recycled materials.
Especially impressive: The woven decorations from the imaginative student collaborators at Clayton Elementary School of Arts & Technology. Unfortunately, all of the school trees were not Colorado natives, disqualifying them.
The winner for best theme: “Decorated by Nature,” submitted by Mary Beth Schomas of Castle Rock. Every year, she and her two daughters hunt a Christmas tree at Buffalo Creek. Their pinecone-studded trophy won over the judges.
The winner for “retro Colorado Christmas”: The vintage 1943 tree submitted by Miriam Cronin of Fort Collins. Wartime curtailed their means; they carried their forlorn little tree home from a lot and dressed its branches as festively as rations allowed.
The “Charlie Brown tree” winners: Chris and Mandy Jankowski. New to selecting a tree from a Colorado forest, they were schooled in the difference between “big” and “full.”
Among the runners-up: A tumbleweed decorated with bright red ornaments; Hendrickson’s German-themed tree; and an angels- and-stars-themed tree that offers a story behind each ornament. To see them all, go online to , and click on “Annual Denver Post/CFP native Christmas tree” link.
