Your Crafty Kids' Ornaments Might End Up on U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree

Governor Jan Brewer is taking a few minutes to forget about the complex task of forging a state budget and focusing on something more fun: Christmas. Brewer is set to announce a statewide project on Thursday to have children across the state make 6,000 handcrafted ornaments for the U.S. Capitol Christmas...

By Ray Stern

August 25, 2009

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Governor Jan Brewer is taking a few minutes to forget about the complex task of forging a state budget and focusing on something more fun: Christmas.

Brewer is set to announce a statewide project on Thursday to have children across the state make 6,000 handcrafted ornaments for the U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree, which itself is coming from Arizona this year.

A bulletin from the Northern Arizona University says this is the first time the tree has ever come from our state, and a review of the "Architect of the Capitol" government site shows this is true.

The official Capitol Christmas Tree site says only 4,000 ornaments from Arizona schoolchildren will be accepted -- we're not sure who's right. But if you want instructions on how to enter and ideas for your ornaments, click here.

Maybe if we're good, Santa will bring our state the billions of dollars needed to make up the budget shortfall.

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Ray Stern is the former news editor of Phoenix New Times. He worked as a newspaper reporter in Arizona for more than two decades. He's won numerous awards for his reporting, including the Arizona Press Club's Don Bolles Award for Investigative Journalism.