For Lecompton publishing trio, the only good tree is a real one
Family hopes magazine reaches more growers
Lecompton residents may not know it, but they have a holiday expert in their midst.
Chuck Wright considers himself a champion of real Christmas tree lovers the world over. And well he should. Since 1978, Wright and his wife, Alice Clare Wright, have owned and published Christmas Trees Magazine, a quarterly publication for Christmas tree growers across the country.
It’s a position that doesn’t come with a lot of glory.
“Most people around here probably don’t even know we do this,” Chuck Wright said. “Mainly just our neighbors know.”
But give Chuck Wright an opportunity and he’ll gladly rail against the “p” word: plastic.
“The biggest problem we have in the Christmas tree industry is plastic trees,” Wright said. “Most of them are made overseas and people think they’re fireproof. They’re not. They’ll burn faster than a real tree, but you can’t tell most people that.”
Currently, Wright is trying to gain the attention of state legislatures to ban plastic Christmas trees from being dumped in landfills because the plastic parts never degrade.
He still handles all the advertising for the publication and Alice Clare Wright overseas the magazine’s circulation of about 3,000. Their daughter, Lawrence resident Catherine Howard, took over as editor three years ago.
The pine cone doesn’t fall far from the tree. Howard also has taken to championing the benefits of real Christmas trees.
Chuck and Alice Clare Wright, left, are the owners and publishers of Christmas Trees Magazine and their daughter Catherine Howard is the editor. The magazine -- which has a circulation of 3,000 -- is a quarterly publication for Christmas tree growers across the country. The family, which was pictured Wednesday at the Wrights' farm in Lecompton, say real trees are not as fire hazardous as fake ones.
“One of the issues that I care the most about is the environmental issue,” Howard said. “People need to remember that when they buy a real Christmas tree, it is 100 percent recyclable.”
And Howard insists real Christmas trees aren’t like placing a Roman candle in your living room. She said the fire risks of real Christmas trees were virtually nil, if properly maintained.
“When a fake tree burns, it can emit toxic fumes that can kill a whole family,” she said.
Take that, fake trees.
Howard said she hoped to get the magazine’s message out to a larger group of people. She thinks the magazine has the potential to expand into the western and southwestern parts of the country and even overseas.
“In the U.S. there are 17,000 Christmas tree growers,” Howard said. “We have about 3,000 of them as subscribers, so we have quite a bit of potential.”
| Catherine Howard, editor of Lecompton-based Christmas Trees Magazine, has a few tips for picking a healthy Christmas tree:¢ Be sure to choose one that doesn’t easily lose its needles when a bare hand is run along a branch.¢ Once at home, cut off a small portion of the base of the tree, then put it in a Christmas stand that can hold at least a gallon of warm water. The warm water, Howard said, helps loosen up the sap and allows the tree to better absorb water.¢ Check water levels in the tree stand often, especially on the first day. The tree will absorb the most water in the first day. “As long as you keep it watered, you’ll have a nice, fresh-smelling tree for several weeks,” Howard said. |
The magazine does more than just tout the benefits of real Christmas trees. For instance, October’s issue talked about the hot trend of Christmas wreaths.
“I can tell people what’s hot and what’s not in the world of wreaths,” said Howard, who has a full-time job as a marketing professor at Washburn University.
In case you’re wondering, the “clear and icy” look is all the rage in the wreath world.
Chuck Wright — who served two terms as Topeka mayor from 1965 to 1969 — became interested in the Christmas tree business after he inherited 70 acres of Lecompton land when his parents died in 1966. In the early ’70s, after taking advice from a Douglas County Extension agent, he planted several acres with Christmas trees to sell.
He and his wife, both 85, are no longer in the business of selling trees, but he said the industry is moving in the right direction because it realizes real Christmas trees have a powerful selling point.
“The biggest thing we have to sell in the Christmas tree industry is tradition,” Wright said. “A mother and father taking their kids out on a winter day and cutting down a tree and bringing it back home. It creates a nice memory.”
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