Christmas Tree

Encinitas, California.--In a greenhouse in Madison, Wisconsin, a row of ordinary-looking six-inch spruce trees may represent the ghosts of Christmas future. These tiny trees are clones of superior white spruces, fortified with a bacterial gene for pest resistance and rooted in soil after long incubation in a lab dish.They represent only the second success scientists have had in regrowing conifers (cone-bearing trees) from genetically engineered embryos. The first came last year at Michigan Technological University with a European larch, and similar manipulations of fir and pine are close behind.

What's purple, white and can hang on your tree's blind side? It's a Michael Oher-nament! Hallmark has just released a sneak preview of it's 2012 Keepsake Ornaments -- and the Ravens offensive tackle has made the cut. It's a first time a Raven has become an ornament -- something the Hallmark company considers and honor. "We chose Michael Oher to become a Hallmark Keepsake Ornament because of his ability on the field and the story of what he had to overcome to get there," Hallmark spokewomanm Jaci Twidwell told The Sun. "He's a great ambassador for the Ravens and is an overall good person.

LIKE MANY HOUSEHOLDS, ours has been busy trying to dispose of the remnants of Christmas. Last weekend, we stripped the Christmas tree of its finery, pried it loose from its holder and carried it, in a not-so-solemn procession, to a resting place.The Christmas tree fought back. It scratched its pallbearers, my 17-year-old son and me. It took a swipe at a living room lamp. It dropped needles faster than some Block dancers drop garments.Once we got the tree out of the house, we wrestled it to the sidewalk.

I hate to admit it. But here it is. I'm one of those county residents who rarely goes into Baltimore City. Some years ago my husband and I were traveling on Charles Street on a Sunday afternoon when we were accosted by a group of teens blocking an intersection. They dared us to run them down. When we blew the horn and inched forward, they kicked out our front headlight. As crime goes, it was minor, but I was reminded of the incident Monday when my husband suggested that we visit the Christmas display in Hampden.

Question: I hesitate to put up a Christmas tree this year, despite having three-year-old twins who would love to have one, due to my concern about stinkbugs living in it. This fall/winter, my house was infested with stinkbugs. I am not knowledgeable enough to determine which pesticide is environmentally safe to use in the house. What extermination company knows how to get rid of this bug in order to save Christmas? Answer: It is not necessary to hire a pest control company to deal with your marmorated stinkbugs.

Even though there was no formal lighting ceremony this year, an Edgewood couple wants to remind their fellow residents that the community's Christmas tree is alive, well and fully decorated. Sam and Donna Gibson, longtime residents active in the community, say they made sure the tree near the Edgewood MARC station did not go neglected. Standing next to the tree Thursday morning, the Gibsons wanted to remind everyone that even though there was not an official tree lighting because of construction by the station, the tree is decorated and lit at night for people to come and see. The Gibsons both talked about how grateful they are for the community and the people in it. They said they just wanted to make sure they could spread some holiday cheer.

What's purple, white and can hang on your tree's blind side? It's a Michael Oher-nament! Hallmark has just released a sneak preview of it's 2012 Keepsake Ornaments -- and the Ravens offensive tackle has made the cut. It's a first time a Raven has become an ornament -- something the Hallmark company considers and honor. "We chose Michael Oher to become a Hallmark Keepsake Ornament because of his ability on the field and the story of what he had to overcome to get there," Hallmark spokewomanm Jaci Twidwell told The Sun. "He's a great ambassador for the Ravens and is an overall good person.

Charles W. St. Clair Sr., an accountant who launched a second career as a Jarrettsville Christmas tree farmer, died May 31 of pneumonia at Upper Chesapeake Medical Center in Bel Air. He was 88. Born on a Jarrettsville dairy farm, in the early 19th-century house he would restore and move back to in 1977, Mr. St. Clair was a direct descendant of Luther Jarrett, founder of Jarrettsville. He grew up on the farm but had a career in business before he started moonlighting in the early 1960s as a Christmas tree grower as a way to put his children through college.

I write this I've just finished reading the entries in the magazine's Holiday Short Fiction Contest, the winners of which will be published next week. One recurring theme this year was the picking out of a Christmas tree. Kids as young as 8 as well as adults wrote about families squabbling over their trees, the children blaming the moms for misshapen trees and so on. But not one entry did I get about how much fun tree shopping is. (Although all the stories end with someone saying, once the tree is in the house and decorated, "This is the best Christmas tree ever!"

Quick, where is the heart of Maryland's Christmas tree industry?If you guessed somewhere near Oakland or Cumberland out in the mountains of Western Maryland, you're wrong. It's actually in Abingdon. Yes, Abingdon, the suburban development hothouse of Harford County.That's the address of the Maryland Christmas Tree Association, the state association of tree growers which publishes the annual guide to "choose and cut" tree farms where you can select a live Yuletide Tannenbaum, saw it yourself and drag it home in the family buggy.

The pizazz of 157 decorated trees sends a joyous message as the doors swing open in a spectacular Christmas display at a children's residential treatment center in Timonium. "It was so much fun for the kids," said floral designer Jake Boone, who continues a holiday tradition established at St. Vincent's Villa by Patricia Breslin Modell, the philanthropist and wife of Ravens owner Art Modell . After her death in October, a group of volunteers continued what she and Boone conceived as a holiday surprise party for the 105 children, aged 14 and under, who live at the Villa, where they receive continuing treatment for emotional and behavioral disabilities.

Even though there was no formal lighting ceremony this year, an Edgewood couple wants to remind their fellow residents that the community's Christmas tree is alive, well and fully decorated. Sam and Donna Gibson, longtime residents active in the community, say they made sure the tree near the Edgewood MARC station did not go neglected. Standing next to the tree Thursday morning, the Gibsons wanted to remind everyone that even though there was not an official tree lighting because of construction by the station, the tree is decorated and lit at night for people to come and see. The Gibsons both talked about how grateful they are for the community and the people in it. They said they just wanted to make sure they could spread some holiday cheer.

The Recycling Office of the Harford County Department of Public Works has announced the location and availability of recycling sites for Christmas trees and similar greenery following the holiday season. The Scarboro Compost Facility will be available Monday through Saturday, from 7 a.m. until 3 p.m. The Tollgate Yard Trim Drop-off site will be open Saturdays only from 7 a.m. until 3 p.m. The Scarboro Compost Facility is at 3135 Scarboro Road in Street. The Tollgate Yard Trim Drop-off site is at 703 Tollgate Road near Bel Air. For additional information, contact Robert Ernst, recycling program manager, at 410-638-3417 or by e-mail at crernst@harfordcountymd.gov .

At Sykesville's Merry Main Street holiday celebration early in December, Burke Holbrook and his buddy Benjamin Skalka seemed like just two of the many kids that night enjoying the sights and sounds of the holiday season. The two 5-year-olds attended the festivities with their parents, walked along the decorated Main Street, enjoyed the town's Christmas tree and visited Santa Claus as part of their preparations for Christmas. But Christmas 2011 has a special meaning for these two, who started their lives a world away, literally, in an orphanage in Nepal.

It's Christmas and the song of the season that first pops into my head shouldn't be Elvis Presley crooning "Blue Christmas. " But it is, even though I'm not blue at all. Far from it, but that's the only Christmas song I can think of whenever I drive through downtown Havre de Grace. The only other words that come to mind are: "Attention, Kmart shoppers, the Blue Light Special…" It's Christmas and the song of the season that first pops into my head shouldn't be Elvis Presley crooning "Blue Christmas.

Baltimore County is home to several Christmas tree farms that open their doors — or at least their farm fences — every year for the holiday season. For more details and additional listings in surrounding counties, go to the Maryland Christmas Tree Association Web site, http://www.marylandchristmastrees.org. Doyle's Christmas Tree Farm — 1155 Bernoudy Road, White Hall. http://www.doyleschristmastreefarm.com . Open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday, Saturday, Sundays only, through Dec. 18. Douglas firs.

After first snagging a friendly employee of Greenway Farms to snap the family Christmas card photo in front of a shapely row of Norway spruces, Amy and Richard Pippenger devised a quick game plan for their hunt for the perfect tree. Their dogs, Lola and Gus, would be handled by two of their kids, Emma and Sam. Richard would push their son, Jack, in a stroller, and Amy would document their holiday adventure with her camera. With more than 15,000 specimens to choose from on 16 acres, no one has to look long or hard to find a great tree, said Mike Healey, 38, who runs his family's cut-your-own tree farm on Route 144 in Woodbine.

Santa Claus and two of his elves pedaled their bicycles across Fort Avenue and up Woodall Street, stopping beside an apartment across from the Domino Sugar Factory. With Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas Is You" blasting from a boombox — and a handful of curious neighbors looking on — the trio carefully unloaded their cargo: A six-and-a-half-foot Douglas fir and a pulled pork sandwich. Up the stairway they went. Christmas had officially arrived at Marilyn Agro's home.