Great Mills, MD – Bubby Knott knows Christmas, and he knows how to do it right. Flat Iron Farm in Great Mills has become a holiday mainstay for families throughout Southern Maryland. The annual funfest began Thanksgiving night and will roll right through until New Year’s Eve with a brilliant Christmas light display that stretches for acres, pony rides and a petting zoo.
His museum is full of collectibles from Americana. It’s a holiday smorgasborg. It started out in the early 70s when he hosted a Christmas party for his Great Mills Trading Post employees at the Brass Rail.
“Everyone brought their families and everyone had a drink in their hand,” he recalled. “I thought to myself, this isn’t right. I called all of the kids together and told them they had to come over to the farm the following day. We put Christmas lights up and when they all came over the next night every child got a present.
“That was the beginning,” Knott said. “From there it just growed and growed.”
To this day, Christmas at Flat Iron Farm remains a non-alcoholic event. “We just don’t need it here,” he said. “Flat Iron Farm is for the kids.”
Knott said that the original Christmas lights that illuminated the farm are no more. They were initially replaced by LED lights which were in turn replaced with the diodes, all now operated by technology. “One little box does it all by computer,” he said. “That’s amazing.”
While he won’t say exactly how many lights make up the winter wonderland, he did admit that there are 50,000—just on the house alone. “The main reason I started it was so I could put more up,” he said.
The 250-acre farm has been transformed into a Christmas paradise for now stretching close to four decades. He said that a new wrinkle in the mix has been the number of marriage proposals that seem to take place every year. “We had one last year,” Knott said. “It stopped traffic right out front.”
Knott was recently honored by the Community Foundation of Southern Maryland for his philanthropy work, including Bluegrass for Hospice which is hosted at the site annually in October. “I like bluegrass music,” he admitted.
As for the Great Mills Trading Post, whose Christmas party started all of this decades ago, they’re still doing quite fine. “I think we may have had our best year ever,” he said.
Please note the attached gallery (Flat Iron Farm 2014) are photos taken in 2014 Flat Iron Farm Christmas event.
Contact Joseph Norris at joe.norris@thebaynet.com
