Jingle all the way

BRANDY STATION - The Harmon family woke Kerry and Dempsey, their prized Belgian Draft horse team, well before sunrise Monday so they could be groomed for a landmark day in Washington, D.C.

This is the first year Harmon's Hayrides & Carriages was invited to deliver the White House Christmas tree.

"It was always a dream of my (late) husband, and we finally got it," Midge Harmon said.

Driver Scott Harmon, Midge's son, and the horses pulled the wagon Monday that delivered the president's official tree - a 20-foot North Carolina Fraser fir, about 19 years old.

Harmon and her family - including her grandchildren 11-year-old Jenny and 9-year-old Chris - were wide-eyed by 4:45 a.m. tending to the horses in the cold night.

"What are you doing, liver lips-" Harmon said as Kerry, her 10-year-old Draft horse stuck out his tongue and made popping sounds with his lips - a habit he picked up from another horse ("Monkey see, monkey do," she explained.)

The farm is set at the end of a gravel road off Carrico Mills Road, surrounded by 126 empty acres. The early hours were black, except for the gossamer glow of a nearly full moon and florescent awning lights. They illuminated the massive horses like big brown Buicks at a filling station.

"They're our prettiest team - our A-team," she said as she finished twisting Kerry's coarse mane into a Scotch roll with red and green ribbons. "They're our favorites."

"Don't let the others read the paper," her son Scott Harmon said to a cackle of laughter.

Harmon's Hayrides & Carriages, the Harmons' horse-drawn hayride, wedding and parade wagon business, was booked by Oxen Hill Farm, which traditionally handles the White House Christmas tree procession.

However, a scheduling dilemma prevented Oxen Hill drivers from participating this year. Since the Harmons have trained Oxen Hill drivers and horses for the past 25 years, it turned to the Harmons to pull its wagon this year.

The Harmons brought their 28-horse business to Brandy Station more than four years ago when development pushed them out of Centreville after more than 30 years.

A White House chief usher, grounds foreman and florist picked the tree from a farm in Laurel Springs, N.C., in October.

It was cut this week and driven to Washington, D.C., by truck.

Harmon's horses carted the tree to the North Portico of the White House, where First Lady Laura Bush received it.

The tree will be decorated and put on display in the Blue Room of the White House throughout the holiday season.

Katie Dolac can be reached at 825-0771 ext. 138 or .

About the tradition
The tradition of placing a decorated tree in the White House began in 1889 during the presidency of Benjamin Harrison. First lady Jacqueline Kennedy began the tradition of Christmas tree themes in 1961.