11/26/2025
If you went by the 14-foot-tall Christmas tree at the heart of the Square, you might have noticed it stands over a honey-gold cross-section of a big tree trunk. That slice came from a 40-foot Norway spruce in Montezuma that now stands in the Panther Stadium. Ricky Thompson, a Newland tree-worker who often works for Newland’s Sugar Mountain Nursery, chainsawed the disk specifically for the festival and delivered it so families and kids could count its rings — as in an open-air, countryside museum of natural sciences. Perfect for teachable moments!
Thompson routinely scales trees up to 60 feet tall. Last year he was assigned to the Sugar Mountain Nursery crew that harvested the Cartner family’s Fraser fir for The White House Blue Room, though he mostly shied away from the cameras. (Below, see the "Newland Voices" Q&A with Sugar Mountain Nursery co-owner Wayne Holden for more about that year!)
Sugar Mountain Nursery supplies and lights large specimen trees across the region, work that demands skilled climbers. The job mirrors the dangers involved in the logging industry — one of the most dangerous jobs in the US according to OSHA — with all the high risks involved with heights, heavy machinery, treacherous terrain, and chainsaws. (Thompson says he’s missing part of one finger. Decades ago, as a tween or early teen — he says he doesn’t keep track of those things — he accidentally sawed that piece off while doing logging work, and he kept working till he finished his job. Safety standards have changed a ton since then. Thompson likes to use his deformity as the butt of jokes for the benefit of family and kids).
When asked if he wasn’t afraid of the hazards of his occupation, the tree-worker said fall and other risks were very real but there was no point to being afraid — it wasted time, sapped energy and you just had to have faith. While he follows safety regulations out of obligation, he says he much prefers climbing trees freestyle like he used to in the olden-days.
This Christmas, take a moment to remember that our living rooms sparkle and The White House smells of pine every winter because of tree-workers’ skill and nerve. Our heart goes out to the hundreds of thousands of everyday workers just like the ones in Newland who are Christmas heroes in the flesh!
Thank you, Sugar Mountain Nursery, for generously lighting up the big Avery Square tree! It was beautiful.
