Ogema's Christmas Tree Festival Wraps Its Sesquicentennial Y

Last updated: September 2026

The Ogema Christmas Tree Festival filled the village and Pioneer Park on Saturday, the annual September salute to the holiday tree industry that has anchored this Price County town for three generations. This year it fell in the middle of Ogema’s sesquicentennial.

Quick Answer: The Ogema Christmas Tree Festival was held Saturday, September 26, 2026, in Ogema, Wisconsin, organized by the Ogema Area Our Town Association. The parade stepped off at 11 a.m. downtown. Daytime events at Pioneer Park and the Ogema Public Library included Christmas tree and wreath judging, craft and flea market vendors, an antique car and tractor show, a horse pull, chainsaw carving, a petting zoo, live music and children’s activities. The night closes with the Firemen’s Dance, which runs until 1 a.m. at the Ogema Fire Company Hall, age 21 and over, with live music by the Rising Star Band.

What happened Saturday

The day started at the Ogema Public Library at 9 a.m., where the Our Town Association sold basket drawing tickets. The Pioneer House Exhibit opened at 10 a.m. for self-guided tours through 3 p.m., running alongside the craft show and flea market.

The parade moved through downtown at 11 a.m. Santa and Mrs. Claus came with it and met families at the library until 12:30 p.m., when the 50/50 raffle drawing was held. A horse pull followed the parade from roughly noon to 2 p.m.

At Pioneer Park the Christmas tree and wreath judging anchored an afternoon of food vendors, a bake sale and pie sale, a bounce house and face painting. The White Haven Petting Zoo opened at noon, Mark Wayne played at noon, and Mr. Concertina performed from 2 to 4 p.m. The bean bag tournament took registration at 12:30 p.m. and started at 1 p.m., with a kickball tournament, bingo at the Town Hall and a Christmas tree toss filling out the schedule.

Across from the fire hall near the log house, the antique car and tractor show took vehicle registrations from 9:30 a.m. and handed out prizes. Chainsaw carving ran across State Highway 86 at the Town Hall from noon to 3 p.m. At the library, Mike Rice presented his “Keeping Ogema History Alive Creator” program at 1 p.m. The Crazy Heart Quilters Club drew its quilt raffle winner at 4 p.m. at the Historic Ogema Depot.

The Firemen’s Dance closes the night

The Firemen’s Dance at the Ogema Fire Company Hall runs from 7 p.m. to 1 a.m., the last event on a schedule that started early Saturday morning. It is restricted to age 21 and over, and the Rising Star Band provides the live music. It is the traditional closer of the festival.

The National Weather Service forecast for the Ogema area called for partly sunny skies and a high near 68 during the afternoon, with a southeast wind around 10 mph. Temperatures were expected to fall through the evening — around 60 at 7 p.m., mid 50s by 9 p.m. — with a low near 50 overnight and a slight chance of rain showers arriving after 5 a.m.

A festival built on the tree harvest

The festival began in 1960 as an Ogema Lions Club event, created to mark the start of the Christmas tree harvest for the area’s tree farmers, trimmers, decorators and related industries. The Ogema Area Our Town Association took it over and still runs it, keeping the tree and wreath competition as the centerpiece. The public votes for the best tree and wreath, and the winners take ribbons and cash prizes. Other events are specific to the occasion — the tree tossing contest, held in several size classes by age group, awards prizes for the longest throw. Santa and Mrs. Claus showing up in September, months before their real shift, remains one of the festival’s selling points.

That a Christmas tree festival happens in late September is not a scheduling error. This is when the harvest starts. Trees cut for the holiday season are worked through autumn so they are ready for retail lots and choose-and-cut farms by Thanksgiving. Wisconsin is among the country’s established Christmas tree producing regions, alongside North Carolina, Pennsylvania and the Pacific Northwest. This year, a Wisconsin farm, Silent Night Evergreens of Endeavor, was named the 2026 National Grand Champion by the National Christmas Tree Association, which carries with it the honor of supplying the Official White House Christmas Tree.

Ogema at 150

Ogema is marking its sesquicentennial in 2026, and the Christmas Tree Festival is one of the final community events of that anniversary year.

The town’s history is the history of the northern Wisconsin timber boom. Logging on the Spirit River began shortly after 1830, with Major Isaac Stone running the first operation there. Crews floated logs east down the Spirit to the Wisconsin River on the spring floods and supplied the camp through Merrill until the Wisconsin Central Railway reached Ogema in 1872.

The railroad was not a convenience; it was a necessity. The maple and hardwood in the area would not float, so the only practical way to move that timber out was by rail. The village was platted and incorporated by the Wisconsin Central in 1878, before the railroad reached Phillips. The Ogema Town Board formed on April 11, 1883. When the railroad stopped running through Ogema around 1960, the same year the festival began, the rail bed became a section of the Pine Line Recreation Trail.

The name Ogema means “Big Chief.” The place was first known as “Station 89,” because it sat 89 miles from Stevens Point, and also as “Holmes Mill,” after the sawmill B.M. Holmes ran there, the first sawmill in Price County.

By 1915 the best timber had been cut and the large logging camps were closing. Farming took over as the local economic base, and the town added a post office, hotel, general store, barbershop and pool hall, furniture shop and the Ogema Creamery to serve the growing number of dairy farms. Swedish immigrants built the Swedish Baptist Church, which opened on July 12, 1880.

The town’s record also includes a long list of hard years: a flood in August 1884 that washed out bridges, forest fires in 1890 and 1894, the 1910 fire that burned toward Ogema from Catawba, the 1923 fire that took the harness shop, garage, Nelson’s Store, the post office and the McGuire Hotel, a 1927 fire caused by an electrical storm that killed two children, a 1941 flood from nine inches of rain that destroyed the dam, and tornadoes in 1952 and 1975. The Ogema Volunteer Fire Company formed in 1954, and its hall hosts tonight’s dance.

The town counted 824 residents in the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2023 five-year estimates, with a median household income of $50,125. Ogema’s population was 882 in the 2000 census, so the long rural decline that has reshaped most of northern Wisconsin has reached here too.

Frequently asked questions

When was the Ogema Christmas Tree Festival? Saturday, September 26, 2026, with events running from 9 a.m. through 1 a.m. the next morning.

Where is it held? Throughout the village of Ogema in Price County, Wisconsin, with the main daytime activities at Pioneer Park, the Ogema Public Library, the Town Hall and the Historic Ogema Depot.

What time is the parade? The parade started at 11 a.m. downtown, followed by photos with Santa and Mrs. Claus at the library until 12:30 p.m.

Who organizes the festival? The Ogema Area Our Town Association. It began in 1960 as an Ogema Lions Club event.

What was the Firemen’s Dance? The festival’s closing event, at the Ogema Fire Company Hall from 7 p.m. to 1 a.m. It was open to age 21 and over, with live music by the Rising Star Band.

Why is a Christmas tree festival held in September? To mark the beginning of the Christmas tree harvest, when area tree farms begin cutting and preparing trees for the holiday season.

Is there a fee to attend? Published festival schedules list no general admission charge. Basket and quilt raffle tickets, food and vendor purchases are separate.

Sources

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