Not every child’s present under the tree has to contain a glowing screen. Sometimes, the best presents come from a tree itself.

A Bowling Green toymaker offers an alternative to an all-electronic Christmas for boys and girls.

Mike Richard Kenney’s handmade children’s toys are available every Tuesday or Saturday at the Community Farmers Market on Nashville Road.

Kenney, 73, said children are fascinated with the wooden toys he makes from cherry, walnut, cedar and other wood varieties.

“Kids love tractors,” he said.

A wooden tractor with a disc machine attached sells for $25. Kenney said he buys the wooden wheels he uses a thousand at a time from a dealer in Wisconsin. The wheels come in 3/4-inch to 21/2-inch sizes.

Kenney also makes wooden primitive toys. One item is a duck that can be manipulated across the floor when the child holds an attached stick.

Most of his creations contain moving parts to keep a child interested in the toy. “I try to make something moveable on every piece,” he said,

Not every Trees to These creation is a child’s toy. 

Kenney also makes tiny, cross-hatched wooden step stools that children can perch on to wash their hands or brush their teeth while at the bathroom sink.

Raw materials come from just about anywhere. Kenney’s been known to make wooden toy cars out of boards that were tossed in a dumpster.

Kenney has always loved working with his hands. He’ll pull out a lined notebook for a customer and sketch out a possible wooden creation. It is sort of a family tradition.

Making something out of wood from just an idea

Kenney remembers his grandfather, George Morgan, drawing sketches on his empty sandwich bag during lunch time.

The New York tinsmith would then take the designs home and create the items he drew.

Kenney grew up in Riverton, Conn., and his grandfather lived about 90 miles away in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. Kenney also gained an appreciation of woodworking by watching craftsmen at the Hitchcock Chair Co. in Riverton.

The U.S. Army pilot from 1965 to 1990 did two tours in Vietnam, flying helicopters during the first tour from 1966-67, then piloting fixed-wing turbo-propeller planes in 1970 over the jungle topography. He worked for U.S. Army Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf Jr. as an African specialist before he retired from the Army.

Among his creations are several wooden aircraft, which he suspends from lines tied above his table. On the table sit helicopters made out of wood.

He said a recent customer purchased a firetruck, ferry boat and cars for $130.

“These will last as to durability,” Kenney said. A Tonka toy will break before Kenney’s wooden creations do, he said.

The woodworker also uses oils to turn the materials different shades so a plane might have a two-tone look.

“I get a lot of ideas off of Etsy or Pinterest,” he said. 

Another item on his display table is a to scale wooden golf cart complete with golf clubs that he sells for $30.

“The most popular item is a wooden slinky,” he said.

Kenney, a 1964 Western Kentucky University graduate, taught woodworking at WKU before his second retirement.

Sitting on a shelf behind the toy display table was a seven-piece wooden farm machinery and implement collection – including, in the finest John Deere fashion, a tractor, baler, manure spreader, a wagon and a seed tiller. Kenney said he’s got about 80 hours of work in the set, which sells for $200.

On the table, Kenney displayed a construction crane made of wood. The work represents eight to 10 hours of work and sells for $60.

Kenney learned from wood and tin masters and built a wooden soap box derby car and train layouts to scale after first making small, wooden race cars, one of the staples for his business, Trees to These.

One of the hardest wooden pieces he’s ever fashioned is a large crane, twice the size of the $60 variety on the table, that sits in his workshop, a building near his residence he built with his brother-in-law. The two-story workshop with a cathedral ceiling has an 11-foot high ceiling on the first floor and a 17-foot high ceiling on the second. The 28-foot-by-26-foot structure is a place where Kenney can safely fashion his creations without distractions.

“It looks like an extension of the house. It’s noise, dust. My wife, Martha, snaps the light on and off to let me know that she’s coming in the workshop,” Kenney said.

Parents have other gift options for Christmas besides toys 

Toys aren’t the only gift answer for children. The Internet has boundless ideas, including classes in music, dance or art; books and board games; tickets for movies or other special events; and materials for crafting.

—Follow business reporter Charles A. Mason on Twitter at twitter.com/BGDNbusiness or visit bgdailynews.com.