Christmas Tree

The City of Hagerstown will host its annual tree-lighting ceremony in Public Square at 5 p.m. Monday, followed by the 23rd annual Hollyfest at The Maryland Theatre at 7 p.m. Coordinated by the city's Community Affairs Office, both events are free to the public. “We encourage everyone to come out,” Community Affairs Manager Karen Giffin said. “... And it is a great way to start the holiday season in City Center.” This year's tree is a 39-foot blue spruce donated by the city's Public Works Department.

Waynesboro's tree-lighting ceremony will be held from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 16, in Center Square. Hosted by Mainstreet Waynesboro Inc., the event is family oriented with musical entertainment and other activities scheduled. This year, the tree will be illuminated early in the evening, so guests can see the lights and ornaments during the remaining activities. DJ Tiny Michaels from 104.7FM will be on hand, as will OC Shift praise band, Waynesboro Area Senior High School jazz band and the Wayneaires.

Les Spade's holiday decorating extravaganza is highlighted by a 35-foot-tall "Christmas tree" that twinkles in the horizon as motorists drive up Greenberry Road. There's another 33-foot lighted tree form in the front yard, a line of candy canes in front of the house and smaller lighted trees at the side of the house. But to get the real effect of Spade's creation in the Greenberry Hills neighborhood, you have to tune your radio to 102.3 FM. That's when you will hear holiday tunes synchronized to the flashing lights on the displays on the property.

The Hagerstown Department of Public Works will pick up Christmas trees for city residents after the New Year's holiday. All ornaments, lights, tinsel and other decorations must be removed from the tree, or it will not be picked up, city officials said in a news release.  Residents may place their trees at the curb in front of their residence as early as 4 p.m. the day before their scheduled collection date and no later than 7 a.m. on their scheduled collection date, the release said.

Washington County residents can recycle Christmas trees at no charge at county Solid Waste Department facilities. Clean Christmas trees, with all lights, ornaments and nails removed, will be accepted from Tuesday through Jan. 31, excluding holidays, from 8 a.m. until 3 p.m. daily. A two-tree limit will be observed. Trees are being accepted at the following locations: Forty West Landfill, one mile West of Huyetts Crossroads off U.S. 40 on Earth Care Road. Greensburg Convenience Center, 13125 Bikle Road.

Christmas just wouldn't be the same without the aroma of pine and a field full of perfectly sculpted evergreen trees. But, after more than four decades, 89-year-old Lee "Tucker" Hopkins and his wife Doris, 66, are closing out an era. This year is the official end to the Flowerwood Farms Christmas tree farm off Two Top Road in Clay Lick. Hopkins' health has forced him into an early retirement from the dream he began as a teenager. In the early 1930s, Hopkins read about a new industry of planting Christmas trees on strip mines in Pennsylvania that piqued his interest.

Well, there are just five shopping days left until Christmas, counting today. I hope you are ready. If you are or even if you aren't, I hope you will indulge me as we take a look at Christmas from down on the farm. While Christmas is a day off for many people, it is not for the farmer. Calves have to be fed and cows have to be milked, eggs have to be gathered and hogs have to be slopped. OK, we don't slop hogs much anymore, but they still need to eat and we need to make sure they have feed.

"In October of 1929, the seizure of all church bells was ordered because 'the sound of bells disturbs the right of peace of the vast majority of atheists in the towns and countryside.'" These were the words of Historian Nicolas Werth as he described Russia's attitude toward religion in the late 1920s. Another Russian historian and writer, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1970 and was awarded the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion in 1983, was equally critical of Russian governments as they maimed, imprisoned and/or killed some 60 million people during the Russian Revolution.

A 39-year-old woman recently went to Meritus Medical Center for chest pains and suffered a massive heart attack, hospital officials said at the hospital's annual Tree of Lights ceremony Sunday evening. The woman did not have insurance for her treatment, but thanks to a special fund set up for needy people at the hospital, the woman got the care she needed, according to Betty Dattilio, co-chairwoman of this year's Tree of Lights campaign. The fund is one of several programs that will benefit from the longtime fundraiser at the hospital, which raises thousands of dollars each year for needed equipment and other services at the hospital, Dattilio said.