Make Your Tree a Cut Above
Cutting down your own Christmas tree can be a fun family outing that gets everyone in the holiday spirit.
The Texas Christmas Tree Growers Association website lists dozens of Christmas tree farms in the state. You might find one near you.
Did you know that most trees grown in Texas are between 3 and 6 years old when they’re sold as Christmas trees?
Big Oil
When Exxon and Mobil, the two largest U.S. oil companies, agreed to merge 25 years ago this month—December 1, 1998—it created the world’s biggest corporation.
Today, ExxonMobil, headquartered in Spring, north of Houston, remains America’s largest oil company.
A Uniquely Texas Town?
For 150 years, Texarkana, in far northeast Texas, has had a shared allegiance with Arkansas and Louisiana—borrowing from all three states for its name. The Texas-Arkansas state line even runs through the post office and federal building downtown.
Texarkana was established December 8, 1873. The city of Texarkana, Arkansas, on the east side of State Line Avenue, was founded seven years later.
The 2024 calendar sells for $12.99.
courtesy Big Bend Natural History Association
A Year in Big Bend
Photographer and writer E. Dan Klepper, an occasional contributor to TCP, was selected to provide the photos for the Big Bend National Park 2024 Calendar. Order your copy and support the Big Bend Natural History Association at bbnha.org.
She Made Country Cool
Barbara Mandrell, a prodigy who could read music and play the accordion before she was 5 and had learned to play piano, bass, guitar, banjo, saxophone and triple-neck steel guitar by 11, turns 75 on Christmas Day.
The Houston native was arguably the biggest female country music star in the late 1970s and early 1980s. She retired in 1997 and was later inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame (2009) and the Musicians Hall of Fame (2014).
