All We Want for Christmas

All you have to do to get in the Christmas spirit here in Arnold is to travel to Ritchie Highway and look for the inflatable toy soldiers lined up welcoming you to a Christmas wonderland at Arnold Farms.

The locally owned home and garden center, started as a roadside farm stand in 1996, offers beautiful plants, flowers, patio furniture, and landscaping materials all throughout the spring and summer. Thousands of drivers are treated to colorful mum displays throughout the fall as well.

But Christmas time is especially colorful for the business, only patrons need to enter the building to fully appreciate the beauty.

On one side of the store is a full a customer service counter where Cathy Haigis and her colleagues offer to make beautiful wreaths, centerpieces, and various garland with either fresh or artificial greens.

"We can pretty much do any piece a person requests," said Haigis. "We even have people come in whose favorite pieces have been damaged and we can fix it right up."

On the other side of the store is their Christmas shop, where everything from ornaments, to lights, to stockings, to nutcrackers are on display, making it seem like a true winter wonderland. You can also find a variety of amazing Christmas fairies hand crafted by artist Mark Roberts.

If you are needing a Christmas tree, even a larger size than most people are looking for, Arnold Farms has a huge selection of both artificial and real trees. Their real trees are Frasier Firs, and come from the Smokey Holler company in North Carolina, whose reputation makes it a leader of tree suppliers on the East Coast.

"We tried some other suppliers, but they just weren't as good of a quality product," said Ron Booth, manager at Arnold Farms. "These folks have provided trees for the White House and as far away as northern New York state. Nobody can beat them."

If you are worried about the price of getting into that holiday spirit, Booth says you don't have to worry about going over your budget.

"We've changed our prices to reflect what is going on in the economy," said Booth. "We used to sell just high-end stuff, but have been changing. We are trying hard to be the local store area residents can turn to for each season."