The smell of fresh pine, the sight of tiny, twinkling, colored lights, the taste of freshly-made gingerbread, the warmth of a cup of hot cocoa: these are all hallmarks of the Christmas season. As owners of Christmas tree farms, no one knows this better than Annette Brusven and her mother Carolyn Leege.

This Saturday Brusven and Leege will be hosting a Christmas wreath workshop at the Spring Valley Tree Farm in Troy, Idaho. The Farm will hold two sessions of 15 people at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. After receiving many requests from customers over the years, Brusven decided to hold her first workshop this weekend.

Attendees will learn how to weave 10-inch pieces of evergreen branches together on a ring in order to form the base of the wreath. Then they will add ribbons and pine cones to make their wreaths unique to them.

“We will be using evergreens native to Idaho such as white pine, cedar, grand fir and alpine fir,” Leege said.

Brusven has been preparing for this weekend for the past week, gathering different ribbons and branches from trees that she and her husband planted 14 years ago.

“It’s the evergreens that make [the wreathes] special,” Brusven said.

Brusven is excited for the event this weekend not only because to experience teaching people the craft, but also because her mom will be there for moral support. She has 40 or 50 years of experience under her belt, Brusven said. Leege is an award winning wreath maker and member of the National Christmas Tree Association.

“I don’t think that she would have held a class like this on her own,” Brusven said, “but she is very creative and likes to teach.”

Leege will be going around and giving advice and moral support to those who are new to making wreaths.

Both women love evergreens and making wreaths. It’s nice that we both have this in common and that we can spend time together teaching others how to make them, Brusven said.

Spring Valley’s official opening weekend begins next Friday. They will be bringing in alpacas from Grazing Hills Alpaca Ranch and hosting live music. They will also be holding a scavenger hunt for children with a variety of prizes. There will be little stars hidden all over the farm.

Brusven and her husband Paul started their own tree farm in 2005 to experience a different type of farm. While Leege’s farm is a wholesale farm, meaning it takes trees and sells them pre-cut in town, the Brusven’s chose to start a U-Cut farm just outside Troy. They wanted to make it so that people could experience the joy of going out and cutting their own tree.

“It’s even better than what we thought it would be,” Brusven said. “All these people come out so happy and full of joy. There’s really nothing like it at Christmas time.”