December 01, 2009, 5:31AM

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2009/12/christmas_tree_deemed_new_jers.html

MENDHAM — It’s not the White House; it’s not Rockefeller Center. But the Christmas tree voted as New Jersey’s best will spend its December cheering up the needy.

After chopping down an 8-foot Norway Spruce at Hidden Pond Tree Farm here today, state Department of Agriculture officials will bring it to the Market Street Mission in Morristown, an organization that ministers to the homeless in Morris County.

Christian Nicholson stands next to a tree that was cut Monday in a ceremony by the New Jersey Department of Agriculture to herald the start of the Christmas tree selling season at Hidden Pond Tree Farm in Mendham.

The charity was chosen by Christian Nicholson, owner of Hidden Pond who was crowned Grand Champion by the New Jersey Christmas Tree Growers’ Association at the state fair this summer. Each year, the farmer whose tree was selected as best in show provides another tree to their charity of choice in the annual kickoff to the tree-growing season.

It’s an exciting development for Nicholson — a landscaper who co-founded Hidden Pond nine years ago on 50 acres of sloping farmland tucked behind West Field in Mendham Borough — especially since raising the most perfect Christmas conifer in the Garden State is no simple task.

“It’s a huge emotional, physical investment,” Nicholson said yesterday, standing next to one of the two spruces he will offer to Agriculture Secretary Douglas Fisher.

Nicholson’s spruce, a lush, cone-shaped affair with short, soft needles, was selected from about 30 entries, first winning the spruce division and then the overall award. It’s the result of eight years of pesticide-free farming and consistent hand-pruning.

“I shear every tree by myself,” Nicholson said. “If we didn’t shear this tree, it would look like a Charlie Brown Christmas tree.”

The Rockefeller Center tree, this year from Easton, Conn., is usually at least 75-feet tall. The White House Christmas tree is the winner of the National Christmas Tree Association competition, and this year hails from Shepherdstown, W.Va.

So what elevates the everyday evergreen to Grand Champion status?

“We have certain criteria,” said Anne Edwards, the president of the New Jersey Christmas Tree Growers’ Association. “Everything is on a point system.

Among the standards for judging are the angle, color, branch formation and handle (the space between where the tree is cut and where the branches begin).

Those benchmarks don’t always apply to customers, though, Edwards said.

“Some people like a real bushy tree, but then again other people like a real open tree,” Edwards said. “Some people like skinny trees because they have a tight spot or maybe they have a mobile home.”

Nicholson said his customers come from all over the state and as far as Pennsylvania to select a tree. But if the stars align, he said, one day he’ll be sending a spruce to the Blue Room in the White House.

“That’s the ultimate goal,” Nicholson said.

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