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Pa. Christmas tree headed for White House

Nurtured by a third-generation Montgomery County Christmas tree farm, a Fraser fir measuring 18 1/2 feet tall and 11 feet wide will reach national heights Friday when it is delivered to the White House.

Nurtured by a third-generation Montgomery County Christmas tree farm, a Fraser fir measuring 18 1/2 feet tall and 11 feet wide will reach national heights Friday when it is delivered to the White House.

Brothers Jay and Glenn Bustard, along with their mother, Virginia, are scheduled to present the tree - this year's official White House Christmas tree - to First Lady Michelle Obama at 11 a.m. It will be on display in the Blue Room.

Planted in 2001 at one of Bustard's Christmas Trees' farms, in Lehighton, Carbon County, the Fraser fir was cut down Monday. White House chief usher Angella Reid selected it during a visit on Sept. 30. Based in Worcester, Montgomery County, Bustard's operates three farms in Pennsylvania and one in Canada.

The Bustard's Fraser fir will be the 50th tree to see White House duty since harvesting them from the National Christmas Tree Association's grand-champion winners began in 1966. Bustard's was awarded that honor in July with a 7-foot-11 Douglas fir grown at its Worcester farm. That win qualified it for consideration as supplier of the White House tree.

dmastrull@phillynews.com

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