A tree from Wisconsin will grace the Blue Room at the White House this Christmas after a grower from Oconto won a national competition.
Dave Vander Velden with his winning sample tree. National Christmas Tree Association
Dave Vander Velden owns the Whispering Pines tree farm in Oconto. A sample tree won the grand champion prize at the National Christmas Tree Association’s competition last weekend.
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“It’s kind of my life goal. I’ve never been the best at anything,” said Vander Velden.
He will present the tree to the first lady in Washington, D.C. sometime in November.
“It’d be the one you see on TV,” Vander Velden said. “When they show the gingerbread house and they show the decorated Christmas tree, the White House Christmas tree, that’d be the one.”
Vander Velden will donate the nearly 20-foot tree he has his eye on. He said a tree like that would normally cost upwards of $500. White House staff will have the final say on what makes the cut.
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