Red Ink, Green Trees

Any minute now, Gov. Chet Culver will be officially lighting up the big Christmas tree on the west side of the Statehouse.

It's a 30-foot-tall Norway spruce from Strautman Tree Farm near Cambridge, Iowa. We used to get our family tree at Strautman's when we lived in Ames.

Culver is probably glad someone else had to do the cutting for a change. He's one of several governors taking a break from tough recessionary sledding to do some tree lighting. Iowa's ceremony also kicks off a Toys for Tots drive by state employees. 

Even South Carolina's embattled Gov. Mark Sanford got to flip the switch Sunday night on his state's 30-foot white fir. The tree is from Pennsylvania, not Argentina.

Minnesota beats Iowa by five feet with its 35-foot tall balsam fir, also being lighted tonight (Monday). But the Gophers haven's scored on Iowa in Football in two years, so take that.

Alabama's going with a 40-foot-tall Cedar and The Terminator will be the illuminator when he lights up California's 55-foot tree sporting 14,000 low-wattage LED lights. That's roughly 1,000 points of light for every percentage point of his job approval.

Oklahoma Gov. Brad Henry will  light a 30-foot artificial tree. I guess Oklahoma is short on real trees. Paging Strautman Tree Farm.

But they all trail the 85-foot U.S. Capitol Christmas tree from Arizona. And the National Christmas Tree, a 42-foot-tall blue spruce living within sight of the White House year-round, has its own Web site.

Locally, Cedar Rapids

lights its 22-foot city tree Saturday.