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The making of a Christmas wreath for her own front door six years ago led Mrs. Meining to begin making the diminutive trees.

In September, 1946, Mr. and Mrs. Meining moved from New York City to a farm near Lehighton, Pennsylvania, to gain experience in farming.

Days rushed by and rolled into the Christmas season. Mrs. Meining, expecting an addition to the family, did not wish to Christmas shop in unknown towns. Besides, there were snow and ice and rough rural roads to contend with. She wished, however, to make the farmhouse look Christmasy. With a burlap bag slung over her shoulder, she disappeared into the near-by woods. "When I returned I looked almost like Santa Claus," she relates. "I had found pitch pine cones and evergreen. I had never made a wreath but I sat down to try. The result was a nicer wreath than I had ever seen in the city.

"Not wanting the folks back home to think that I had forgotten them I made each grown-up relative a wreath, a gift to suffice for the family. They were delighted with the gifts. Friends who saw them placed orders for the following Christmas."

In February, 1947, during a terrific snow storm, Mrs. Meining was taken to the hospital to await the birth of her child. "Imagine my surprise," she says, "when not only one addition arrived, but two! Both sons."

LATER ON in the year the Meinings purchased a farm several miles away near Kunkletown, Pennsylvania. Chores on the farm and twin babies kept Mrs. Meining doubly busy.

December arrived and Mrs. Meining with her "double trouble" as she fondly refers to her twin sons, had no time for Christmas shopping.

A friend knowing of her interest in making Yuletide articles, gave her a booklet containing ideas for Christmas gifts. In it were incomplete instructions for making a lollipop tree. Ingenuity came to Mrs. Meining's aid. With pine branches from trees growing on the farm she constructed a lollipop tree as she imagined it should look.

Using all-purpose wire fabric, quarter-inch mesh, she fashioned a cone-shaped cylinder frame and has since used the same type frame. A pattern with two ten-inch sides and a slightly curved fifteen-inch base is used to cut the triangular frame. The sides of the frame are tied firmly together with strong waxed string. Nine frames can be cut from a 36-inch square piece of wire.

Beginning at the small end, the top of the tree, Mrs. Meining inserts the cut ends of the smallest pine branches (about three inches) into each opening, graduating to larger branches as she works down, shaping the tree as she goes. "This," Mrs. Meining explains, "is an art that my husband Art cannot accomplish. He tried his hand at it and produced a lop-sided effect that was not becoming to a lollipop tree."

The insertion of the pine branch into each mesh works on the same principle as the insertion of a fish hook. The serrated effect of the pine branches makes them difficult to remove once they have been inserted through the mesh, thus providing a firm, compact tree. The compactness serves as a solid foundation to hold artificial red berries, five pairs of stems fastened with a wire, and inserted here and there. About two dozen tasty lollipops placed firmly into the tree, inserted so that only the lollipops show, add the final touch and additional color. Mrs. Meining's first tree was set on an egg crate filler, covered with tin foil. Now she places the tree on polar foam purchased in 36-inch strips and cut, with a carving knife, into one-foot squares.

Mrs. Meining uses Scotch pine, white pine, red pine and occasionally balsam, all grown on the farm. In trimming the plantation trees, she cuts away bottom branches thus encouraging the tree to grow strong and straight. "Scotch pine makes the most attractive tree and is easier to handle, especially when fresh cut," she says. "Any pine, however, is hard on the hands if fingers are thin-skinned, for three pounds of tiny evergreen branches are used in each tree. When my fingers become too tender from the prickly pine, gardeners' gloves solve the problem but slow up the work somewhat. Taping fingers with adhesive tape is a preventive measure. We don our oldest togs to do this work as the sap from the pine branches stains clothing beyond restoration."

MRS. MEINING'S first attempt was to have been a Christmas gift for her sons. Then it occurred to her that their cousin in New York City would be enchanted with such a present. She mailed it to an aunt who was to give it to the recipient on Christmas morning. Her aunt immediately wrote back suggesting the same kind of gift for another cousin. Mrs. Meining made three that year including one for her sons. This was the beginning of the lollipop tree hobby.

Friends of Mrs. Meining's relatives who saw and admired the lollipop trees made requests for them for the next Christmas. On a trip to New York City, Mrs. Meining toured an exclusive shopping area and selected a likely looking prospective store, went in and showed her wares and was given an immediate order. Another friend, on a visit from Florida, was intrigued by the lollipop trees and requested colored photos to take back with him. On his return to Florida he showed the pictures to a select shop which also placed an order. Two years ago Mrs. Meining displayed the lollipop trees and wreaths in a store window in a near-by town. Her first commercial advertising was done last year over a local radio station.

Mrs. Meining ran into a bit of difficulty with the Florida order. After the contract had been made, the store demanded that the trees be packed individually in open-face boxes. She telephoned several distant factories that made boxes, but it was impossible to obtain open-face boxes in the size she needed. Since no mention of shipping the trees in individual boxes had been made in the original contract, she felt that she could not bear the added expense. Therefore, she called the Florida store telling them of the impossibility of obtaining the desired boxes but saying that she would send them individually if they would pay half, to which they agreed. "Our telephone bill that month was appalling!" she says. "Since then, I have confined my orders all direct—farm to customer, either private delivery to New York City or mail."

WHEN SHE receives more orders than she herself can make, Mrs. Meining pays friends to help her—but this cuts considerably into her profits. It takes an hour and a half to two hours of steady work to make the foot-high tree and she pays the women $1.25 per tree just to place the greens on the frame. The rest of the material and labor put into the tree costs $1.50, bringing the total cost of the tree to $2.75. She sells the trees for $3.50. She has purchased the wire fabric from a large mail order house in 100-foot rolls. Most hardware dealers and dealers in lumber also carry the wire, sometimes called "hardware cloth," in various widths and it can be purchased in desired lengths. Berries for the trees are bought by the gross, wires for fastening berries by the pound, cord by the box and polar foam by the sheets as well as the material for the wreaths—pine cones, ribbon and sticks, all from a wholesale florist, in New York City.

The lollipops are bought by the pound, usually forty-five to a pound. "I like a fairly large cone-shaped lollipop—one that resembles tree lights," Mrs. Meining explains. "And if costs of lollipops are higher this year, naturally I will have to up the price of the tree." Catering to children in the creation of lollipop trees, Mrs. Meining insists on excellent fruit flavor in the lollipops she buys. "Besides," she adds whimsically, "the hobbyist needs something to nibble on."

Mrs. Meining begins collecting materials and cutting the pines late in November, and distributes the makings to her workers who work in their own homes. When the items have been completed she collects them and leaves additional material. "In 1951, the boys caught the measles necessitating that I remain in the house most of the time," she relates. "I did many odds and ends well in advance in preparation of the actual construction. This cut the time, somewhat in outside labor.

"At shipping time eighteen-hour days are the usual diet for us—for last minute orders always come in and no customer has been disappointed thus far. Shipments are made via parcel post—wreaths being boxed in 'Baby Chick Pullman' boxes to lend an atmosphere of rural quaintness for our city customers. Shipments to Florida and points west as far as Oklahoma have stood the trip very well and the first experiments with hot Florida sunshine didn't bother the evergreens at all. They lasted four weeks before browning on the tips. I've learned from experience that if the wreath or lollipop tree is unpacked immediately on receipt so that the branches can 'breathe,' no trouble will be encountered.

"Every year one big shipment is delivered personally by my husband to New York. All the trees go to one small area. His trip costs less than postage would and then he can also bring all the Christmas gifts from our relatives to our 'double trouble.' For you see," she adds proudly, "they are the only twins on either side of our family tree."

While spring pruning may be the ideal time for pruning evergreen trees, the pruning Mrs. Meining has done in the fall has not been harmful to the pines. "Pennsylvania State Foresters have been in and checked the state plantings and they tell us that we have one of the finest stands, which they presume, is due to the winter cutting," Mrs. Meining says. State and soil conservation trees were growing on the property when the Meinings purchased it. They have planted thousands of trees since.