Take one small step into Southside Baptist Church’s annex, and you’ll smell the fresh forest scent of the Douglas fir.
Take another small step, and you’ll see two scores or so of these trees — beautifully adorned and decorated for Christmas.
Then, take one more step, and there — somehow hidden among the trees — you’ll see a makeshift living room with sofas, lamps, a coffee table, an electric fireplace, and a small nativity scene, one wooden and one porcelain, on either side.
This was the vision of Jacki Greenfield and her family, who simply wanted to create a warm and safe place for families to gather for a brief, quiet moment amid all the chaos.
Owners and proprietors of the Greenfield Christmas Tree farm in the hollows of Caldwell County, these Douglas firs were originally slated to be a big part of the Princeton Christmas Parade before being distributed to their families.
When the December 10 tornado hit and the parade was understandably canceled, the Greenfield family needed someplace for these evergreens to go.
To Southside Baptist, they went.
While some displaced families have found a place to stay, and have since retrieved their trees or had them delivered, some folks still don’t have a place to go. And Christmas quickly approaches.
This “living room” has provided a Christmas postcard for those who no longer have mailbox, while thousands upon thousands of donations in the last two weeks have become gifts that are wrapped and placed under the trees.
With the trees wrapped around the living room, there is a calm, almost-existential peace.
The fact that this idea even exists truly begins with Jacki and her husband’s oldest daughter, Hannah, who turned a coveted piece of land into a tree farm — thanks to a high school Future Farmers of America project.
Caldwell County FFA advisor Magen Woods made a few contacts within the national organization, and the country has delivered in kind.
There’s still time to make visits. Greenfield said that a few families have set up appointments to be together, but that the church annex will be open from 10-to-4 Friday and 10-to-4 Saturday for those in need.
A Christmas miracle, indeed.
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