7
November/December 2025
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THE DAVEY BULLETIN
VISION
MICKMAN BROTHERS SPREADS HOLIDAY CHEER WITH WREATHS
For the team at Mickman Brothers, Inc., a Davey company,
the holiday season brings on a new level of busyness as
they work to sustainably harvest evergreen boughs and turn
them wreaths and decorations in time for Christmas at the
Minnesota shop.
Like every year for the past 50 holiday seasons, this year's
wreath planning process started on Dec. 26, 2024. After
nearly 10 months of planning, preproduction and endless
hours of gluing jingle bells on pinecones, full-time production
begins Oct. 1.
"Christmas is always around the corner for us, and to be
able to have a part in everyone's year, a time where people
can, despite any hardships, celebrate and be together is
extremely special. It is a constant reminder of how
important the work we do is," Uriel Blanco, assistant
manager, Mickman Brothers Wreaths, said. Blanco works
with his mother, Berta Gonzales, who has held the role of
production manager for 25 years.
Mickman's wreaths, door sprays, indoor evergreen
products and other accessories are made from Balsam
Fir, sourced in Minnesota and Wisconsin, and Noble Fir,
sourced in Washington. The holiday evergreens are then
decorated with jingle bells, pinecones, bows and more
in-house. These products are then sold through fundraisers
run by youth groups, nonprofits, scout troops, lions clubs,
school groups and churches.
Mickman Brothers' founder John Mickman, who took
over the business from his father in 1975 and whose
grandmother ran a wreath-making business when he was
young, said a large focus of their operation is their sustainable
harvesting techniques and their Million Tree Planting
Program, where for every product purchased, the company
plants a seedling in a national or state park or forest.
In 2025, the company announced it achieved its goal of
financing the plantings of over one million tree seedlings
in 49 states.
"I'm very proud of this company, and I'm really proud of
this reforestation effort," Mickman said. "Harvesting boughs
in a sustainable manner has been something my dad taught
us how to do way back. We've always been interested in
the long-term health of our industries."
Mickman Brothers produces over 400,000 wreathes
and other decorations each holiday season.
Western Red Cedar bough
sprigs sit in a box ready to
be made into thousands of
holiday products.
A 28-inch holiday wreath is
put together with pinecones
and sustainably-harvested
evergreen boughs.
A 25-inch Cranberry Splash
Wreath sits in a new carton
design Mickman Brothers
developed this year.
