Christmas time has always been my favorite season as a child. The day after Thanksgiving was and still is one of the best days of the year. Growing up, our family tradition, the day after Thanksgiving, was to search the basement and unbox our artificial Christmas tree, the tangled up ball of lights we prayed would work from the year before and the huge cardboard box filled with ornaments, each wrapped meticulously, by my mother, so they would be preserved along with the memories attached to them. We had Johnny Mathis’ Christmas album playing on the record player and our cups were filled with hot chocolate and marshmallows as we decorated the tree. It’s where we all came together and everyone seem so happy and present. We shared new and old stories and created lasting memories as we brought each new holiday season to a start. ` It was just so simple and it was my perfect day.

In 1995, I married my husband, Trevor and he introduced his childhood, family tradition to my world and that was buying a real Christmas tree. We went to a tree farm and purchased our first, live Christmas tree. It was huge and too big for our living room but i loved it! It filled our house with the perfect scent of pine and cedar and we decorated it with Johnny Mathis playing in the background while drinking hot chocolate( and bailey’s) ;). This was the start of creating our new tradition, together.

Year after year, our growing family headed out the day after Thanksgiving and we visited many different tree farms to buy our Christmas tree each season; then one year we stumbled on a Tree farm that sparked a little flame in my heart.

Warren’s Tree Farm was the name and it was like nothing I have ever visited before. I would have sworn this is where Santa lived in his off season. Our 3 kids, Trevor and I were welcomed at this family run tree farm with such kindness and true joy as we walked onto the property. We were guided to choose between the horse drawn carriage to cut our own from the field of trees or we could choose from the different varieties of fresh, precut pines shipped in from other states. After picking our perfect tree we headed to the barn to make our purchase and I noticed there was even more to this beautiful place. Inside the cozy, charming barn, heated with a wood burning stove and offering hot chocolate and wassel ( warm, spiced apple cider) to complete the scene, there were beautifully decorated fresh wreaths and garland to complement any front door. It was at ‘Warren’s Christmas Tree Farm’ that day and each year after that I would say that I said to my husband, ” I want to, own a tree farm like this, someday.”

Someday came and we opened the Rus-T- Barn , November 2020 and we are blessed for our family to be apart of your family tradition.

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Trevor, Lisa, Mitchell, Isabel, Alexandra and Connor