Warther's Christmas Tree Festival - Dover, Ohio

2023 DATE: November 11-19, 2023

This post documents my experience on November 13, 2010.

Now that the pumpkins are all put away and the leaves are being raked, Christmas songs have made there ways to certain radio stations and suburban dwellers are taking advantage of nicer weather by hanging lights from the gutters and shrubs.

And, although I’m a firm believer in keeping holiday celebrations roughly around the time of the holiday (and not 2 months beforehand), I do admit that I don’t mind all this premature Christmas activity this year. Perhaps that’s why I drove all the way to Dover in mid- November…

…to Warther‘s Christmas Tree Festival…

…all raring to go with a smile and all!

Set inside the Warther Museum…

…you knew there was something special about the place once you saw the workroom, built in 1912…

…with 5,000+ arrowheads on the ceiling and walls.

The Warther family is known for their interesting carvings and high quality cutlery. So it was nice…

…to walk about the museum for the trees…

…while also taking in the family history…

…and fascinating carvings…

…that were even motorized.

Apart from walnut and ebony…

…the Warthers carved from a third item (ivory) before it became too taboo…

…and all three made some spectacular train carvings that could be enjoyed during the festival experience.

Two of the trains particularly stood out to me.

The first train…

…the “Empire State Express” is breathtaking…

…not to mention the “largest working ivory carving in the world.”

And the “Lincoln Funeral Train”…

…even has Lincoln’s casket and body (carved) in one of the rear cars.

But before we start focusing on death too long, let’s get back to the main theme of the festival…

…the Christmas tree.

Presented by the Union Hospital Auxiliary, the festival showed 83 trees that were donated by people, organizations, businesses, banks, hospitals and so forth. Each was available for sale with proceeds used to purchase patient care equipment.

And there were some really cool trees available…