LINDA CHION KENNEY PHOTOS
Cathy Roberts works on creating a wreath for sale at Mike’s Christmas Trees, at the Riverview tent in Winthrop, where Mike’s has been selling trees for 20 years. Her husband Mike died last year in October, days after learning he had a rare form of cancer. Cathy promised to keep alive the decades-long tradition of delivering Mike’s Christmas Trees straight from Michigan to Florida.

At Mike’s Christmas Trees, tradition trumps pandemic

By LINDA CHION KENNEY

’Tis the season to buy and spruce up holiday trees and décor and no pandemic is going to get in the way of tradition. That’s the word from Mike’s Christmas Trees, where hearty trees of all sizes, varieties, colors and shapes stand both wrapped in water and in full display for the selective viewing of kids and adults.

Count among them Ryan and Krista Lose and their sons Logan, Carter and Ethan, who this year moved to south Hillsborough County and for the first time as a family are in the market for a live Christmas tree.

“We just moved here, and we thought let’s try something new,” Krista Lose said while visiting Mike’s Christmas Trees at East Bay High School the day after Thanksgiving. “The boys saw Mike’s tent, and they really wanted to do it, and I’m all for it.”

As for Dad, he said he didn’t realize there would be so many choices, having expected to walk in and simply choose between shape and size. That would have made the selection easier, but it was a much more involved process for the Lose family, with each of the boys setting his sites on a different type of tree for a different type of reason.

Logan chose his tree “because it’s tall and it has a lot of branches and a lot of off-shoots,” he said. “A lot of things that you can hang a lot of ornaments on.”

Ethan, who wore a face covering, like his family, chose his tree because the needles were soft. And Carter selected his because it was not too thick and wide and “it has a lot of branches, and I just like it.”

In addition to its 16th year at East Bay, at 7710 Old Big Bend Road, Mike’s this year opened for its 20th season at Winthrop (11349 Bloomingdale Ave.) and for its first year at St. Matthew’s Anglican Church, less than 1 mile west of Winthrop at 10701 Bloomingdale Ave.

At St. Matthew’s, where the focus is on smaller trees under 10 feet, worker Dawn Fand showed off a series of newly treated blue spruce trees, their green branches covered in snow-white flocking and sparkles.

She said that at one time, like many people, she believed there was pretty much only one kind of Christmas tree, a pine tree. At Mike’s the choices run the gamut of pines, spruces and firs, including Douglas fir, Fraser fir, Scotch pine, Black Hills fir, grand fir and white fir, all direct from Michigan.

“I grew up in Michigan, not far from where all these trees grow,” Fand said. “I always called them pine trees. I never knew they had so many, many names.”

Variety is key at Mike’s, where wreaths, table decorations, plants and other seasonal décor are on sale, as each newly purchased Christmas tree is shaken, trimmed, baled and loaded for its trip home for the holidays.

Busy at work Nov. 27 at the Winthrop tent workshop were wreath-makers Karen Vosburg and Cathy Roberts, whose husband, and business founder and namesake, Mike Roberts, died last year in October from a rare form of cancer, just three days after diagnosis.

She said her husband’s dying wish was for Cathy Roberts to get the trees to Florida. “These trees were all grown to celebrate the birth of Christ,” he told her. “You can’t disappoint all those people. You have to get those trees down there.”

Now, for a second year and for the foreseeable future, the tradition continues, with new folks who never met Mike buying trees, and many others who have.

“It’s been a good thing for Cathy to hear a lot of the stories of the impact Mike has had over the years,” Vosburg said, in an interview last year. “So many people have come in and talked about Mike and how buying a tree here has been part of their Christmas tradition.”

Visit www.mikeschristmastreesoftampa.com.

Mike’s Christmas Trees, direct from Michigan.

Just out of the workshop, a wreath hand-crafted by Karen Vosburg of Mike’s Christmas Trees in Riverview, under the tent at Winthrop, and also down the road at St. Matthew’s Anglican Church. A third south Hillsborough County location is at East Bay High in Gibsonton.

LINDA CHION KENNEY PHOTOS
Dawn Fand shows off a series of newly treated blue spruce trees, their branches covered in snow-white flocking and sparkles.

Workers Jayden Young, left, and Kipp Cochera at Mike’s Christmas Trees in Gibsonton, where each newly purchased tree is shaken, trimmed, baled and loaded for its trip home for the holidays.

Logan Lose, standing by the tree he favored at Mike’s Christmas Trees in Gibsonton.

Krista and Mike Lose, with their sons, from left, Carter, Ethan and Logan, at Mike’s Christmas Trees at East Bay High School in Gibsonton the day after Thanksgiving.