We have talked about it for days, set-up for months, and planned it for a year, and today is the day.
We at Bremer Farms were bustling about as fast as Santa’s elves earlier this month. While the elves
were building toys at the North Pole, we were creating a Christmas extravaganza on our dairy farm.
Daughter Sara loves decorating our farm for holidays. Colorful blinking lights on our house synced to
music, inflatables bouncing in the breeze, cut-outs of familiar characters…you name it, and we have it! Sara decorates our farm for most holidays, but none surpasses what she creates for Christmas. We have 75+ inflatables inhabiting the farm. Santa, snowmen, forest creatures, even penguins don our yard. She hasn’t found a cow yet, but I know she is still looking.
Each summer Sara spends hours, and hours, sawing, painting, and constructing new plywood cut-outs of our favorite Christmas stories. There are gingerbread houses that look good enough to nibble! Of course our Christmas display would not be complete without the nativity, including the star shining above.
Four years ago we decided our holiday decorations would be a unique way to promote dairy, so for one night each December we open our farm to allow hundreds of cars to drive through our farm to view the decorations up close. This also means that visitors can view our cows up close, as they all line up to check out the traffic jam on Bremer Farms. A dozen or so 4’ square banners decorate the exterior walls of our barns announcing dairy facts such as how often we milk our cows, and how much, and how long it takes for each cow to milk, along with other cow facts. New for 2019, we will have a large movie screen showing what happens during the milking process in our barn, as it is happening!
What do Santa Claus and dairy farmers have in common? They both promote dairy. Santa and Mrs.
Claus, my son and daughter, (…shhh, don’t tell) greet our littlest holiday guests with farm coloring books and candy canes and our older visitors are gifted dairy recipes and insulated lunch bags. Santa’s elves will be handing out cheese curds and milk too! Santa and his lovely wife pose for many photos also. Our entire family is available to wish everyone happy holidays and also answer questions.
We also collect donations for our local food shelf, along with cash donations. We have an agreement
with our food shelf to use the cash donations to purchase milk, which is the most-requested, yet least
donated item. Did you know on average, clients receive the equivalent of less than 1 gallon per person per year? That’s because while folks are generous with canned and dry goods, many don’t think to donate milk because it is perishable. Collecting cash donations makes getting milk to those in need, simple and possible.
So tonight we are hoping for hundreds of visitors to our farm. Will we see you?
