Where Christmas takes root in Erath County

BY MACKENZIE JOHNSON

Editor-in-Chief

Roughly 365 days of the year, Erath County is home to squatty, spindly mesquite trees, low-hanging pecan branches and the thin, scaly bark of cedar elms.

While the state of these trees shifts with the seasons—with ripened pecans loosening their grip and hitting the ground in the fall, mesquites turning dormant in the winter and the green leaves of cedar elms morphing to yellow—their trunks remain firmly rooted in the earth.

However, there is one tree in particular that doesn’t reside in North Texas year-round. Instead, it’s uprooted and hauled to the edge of the Stephenville-Dublin city limits – and despite the Christmas tree’s provisional stay, it might just hold the throne as the most beloved.

The Stephenville / Dublin KOA Journey RV Park and Campground is a local community pillar, offering not only residential opportunities but also serving as a hub for holiday traditions. The campground will house its own Christmas tree farm starting Friday, Nov. 21, along with its annual Christmas Tree Celebration event on Saturday, Nov. 29.

Ken Stephens and Jordan Ditty have been co-owners of the RV park and campground since April 2022. The business partners met while pursuing their master’s degrees at Texas Christian University and, though they each have individual business interests, agreed that immersing themselves in Erath County was a spectacular foray – both for their careers and their desire to serve a community.

“It is an RV park, but we don’t really think of it in those specific terms because we really do a lot more than that,” Stephens said. “We do events like the Christmas Tree Celebration, but we also are the largest propane dealer in the area, the largest U-Haul dealer in the area, have boat and RV storage and have a retail operation as well. We think of ourselves as more like a community campground because we do have the daily business but also serve as a suburb.”

Stephens and Ditty have worked to build a clean, wholesome and safe community where individuals, children and young families can live full time or make a pit stop during their travels. In such close proximity to the university, they place a special emphasis on the demographic of Tarleton students.

Sharon Low is the operations manager of the Stephenville / Dublin KOA, a position that entails taking care of the daily upkeep of the facility, and recognizes the gap they can help fill for Tarleton, whether in employment or housing opportunities.

“We have four employees that are currently at Tarleton, and then we also have about 10 to 12 students that live in the park,” Low said. “Not having enough housing for all the students can be a problem at Tarleton, so many parents have decided to buy their kids an RV or camper and put them in our park. It’s safe and clean, and they don’t have to worry about them.”

The park is striving to make advancements that are student-specific, such as installing fiber optics—the fastest internet available in the area—to better accommodate their needs.

“The appeal to Tarleton students is really important for our business because we really like having Tarleton students in the park,” Ditty said. “We’ve grown that portion of our business over the last couple of years, but we’re continually thinking to improve our value proposition for students who want to live in a safe and quiet place.”

Considering the park is still within its first three years, other enhancements are also in the works, but an active step Stephens, Ditty and Low are taking now is expanding their local outreach.

“We’re looking for things to do that are for the community,” Stephens said. “Most of our events are open to the community. We expect Tarleton students and alumni, parents and the community from Stephenville and Dublin and the surrounding cities to come and participate. We really target all of Erath County.”

While the Stephenville / Dublin KOA Journey RV Park and Campground offers events often, the Christmas tree farm has become a staple, now in its second year. Considering Fraser firs—the most popular Christmas tree variety—need cooler, higher-elevation climates, they source their trees from North Carolina and Michigan.

“Fraser firs are the No. 1 Christmas tree in the United States without question,” Stephens said. “It’s the most popular. It’s a tree that looks and feels and smells like Christmas, and based on its heritage, it will hold its needles and maintain its shape well all the way to Christmas without any trouble.”

The Christmas tree farm also offers blue spruce and Douglas fir trees, as well as fresh-made wreaths. With trees about nine feet tall last year, this year’s batch will reach 11 feet – but first, they have to get them here.

“We start planning very early in the year, over the summer,” Ditty said. “If you think about the overall cycle, orders for the trees are placed around July, where you’re working out the logistics in terms of the freight and delivery of the trees. Our trees showed up Nov. 19. We expect that with the assortment of trees that we have, which are really premium trees, we’ll be effectively sold out within the last couple of weeks of December.”

Beyond the Christmas tree farm itself, their Christmas Tree Celebration event on Saturday, Nov. 29, from 1 to 3 p.m., is also highly anticipated. Featuring pictures with Santa, face painting, bounce houses, games, free brisket tacos provided by Dublin Family Worship and, of course, Christmas tree shopping, the event is open to all and only requires a $10 admission fee. However, in an effort to raise money for Dublin Family Worship, canned foods will be collected, with each can donated counting as $1 off admission, up to a maximum of $5 for five cans.

“In simple terms, I love Christmas,” Stephens said. “Supporting Christmas in the community is just really important to me. We don’t make a whole lot of money doing events or trees. It’s more of a community service that we do. We’re a successful business, and this is something that is a way for us to give back to the community.”

For the Stephenville / Dublin KOA Journey RV Park and Campground, giving back isn’t something limited to the holiday season but is pursued year-round. However, getting to do it this time of year, within a community so rewarding to serve, lands a little more special.

“The ability to share the joy of the season and give back to the community is what it’s all about,” Ditty said. “That’s really fundamentally what it comes down to because we’re not looking to make money on these things. It’s really about participating and being good stewards of the community.”