SPOKANE, Wash. — The holidays have arrived at The Davenport Historic Hotel. Hayden, Idaho's, New Leaf Nursery, has delivered 53 holiday trees, including the lobby's centerpiece tree, standing at over 20 feet tall.
"It takes more than two weeks for us to pull together. Harvesting the trees. Identifying which tree we are going to harvest for the lobby," Ben Christen, the general manager of the nursery, said. "Then there’s a full production of roughly ten people that goes through lighting the trees, flocking the trees, and delivering the trees.”
Melissa Green, the Davenport Hotel's Vice President and Area Managing Director expects more than 110,000 people to visit The Historic Davenport Hotel this holiday season, with the main attraction being the Christmas trees on display all over the hotel.
But there is one Spokane local responsible for all the behind-the-scenes work. David Trail, born and raised in Spokane, has been flocking Christmas trees since he was 19 years old.
“The guys who taught me, watching them do it, I got an appreciation for the craft," said Trail.
Trail said he has been helping the Davenport get ready for the holidays since the early 2000s.
“I keep doing it because I have a lot of people say ‘I don’t know what we would do if you didn’t do it’ so it's kind of out of duty and ownership. They are my people," said Trail.
Trail says he worked at the beloved Stanek Nursery for numerous years until they closed up shop in 2020. He then recommended New Leaf Nursery to take over this special job and worked to teach the nursery how to flock their trees.
“David has done this for roughly thirty years for the Davenport through various organizations," Christen said. "It’s really an honor for us to kind of be a part of that.”
Now Trail and Christen work together every season to make magic happen.
Hotel staff says the additional Christmas Tree Elegance trees will be decorated following Thanksgiving Day and they are expected to be unveiled to the public next week.