Announcing the Winners: 2007 Christmas Tree Decorating Contest (see winners' photos by clicking on the "Gallery" link below) Grand Prize: HANDMADE Tracey G. Gross Isle, Michigan We love the fact that Tracey and her husband keep bees for a hobby. Since honeybees have had such a rough go of it in the last year, we think her tree is a great tribute to the hard-working honeybee. Tracey made all her ornaments entirely out of beeswax-melted down in a double boiler before being poured into cookie molds-then painted by hand in gold leaf because the name of their beekeeping operation is called “Island Gold.” Stunning tree! Grand Prize: STORE-BOUGHT Jessica C. Versailles, Kentucky We love the fact that all Jessica’s ornaments were either purchased from crafters in Kentucky or purchased as antiques. Her little antique boy angel holding a stick snowman completely captured our hearts. (Jonni L. of Covington, KY and Joy M. of Monticello, KY were in this same category, store-bought but handmade. Jonni has accumulated hers over many years as she traveled around the world-a memory travel tree. Since all these gals are in Kentucky, we hope to meet all three of them! Beautiful!!)

Best Collaborative Effort, FARMERETTE HANDMADE

Unfortunately, when we designed the categories for winners, we didn’t think to add a special category for FARMERETTE.

The tree labeled Wendy, Chapter Entry, Handmade, Herriman, Utah were ornaments made entirely by her three daughters, who have formed a farmerette chapter called Queridas. The girls are only 10, 8, and 6 years old, making this tree even more extraordinary. Since it was hard enough narrowing the honorable mentions down to three, we decided to give Queridas an honorable mention in its own category of BEST COLLABORATIVE EFFORT. For this prize, we hope the girls will let us feature their tree along with photos of the three girls who designed it in next years’ winter issue of MaryJanesFarm.

Honorable Mentions

FREE-STYLE
Tina W.
Store-bought
Panama City, Florida

Tina’s tree was one of Meg’s favorites because it was decorated in such a lively mix of just about everything, “similar to my tree.” Gorgeous free-style!!

MOST EFFORT
Veronica C. & David K.
Store-bought
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

We were entranced by the shear number of lights (700!), the metal stars hung by white satin, the cranberry garland mixed with real acorns, the delicate red, blue, and clear glass bulbs, and finally the array of doves from silver to clear frosted glass with a beautiful vintage wooden dove perched on top. The tree is surrounded in a red skirt with embroidered snowflakes. WOW!!!!! We lost our breath just thinking about how much effort this took.

SWEETEST STORY
Lea B.
Handmade
Scotts Hill, Tennessee

Lea’s tree is a tribute to a precious Appalachian farmgirl-her grandmother, Barbara Carter. All of the ornaments of her tree are sewing notions from her grandmother’s sewing box that was given to Lea when her grandmother passed away.

She even hung her grandmother’s old-fashioned eyeglasses in the very center. In honor of her grandmother, Lea also crafted a few yo-yo’s. “All the tinsel in the world cannot hold the sparkle that this little tree holds in my heart.”