Longtime Vineyard resident Grant Holdaway knows a thing or two about the little hamlet west of Orem along Utah Lake. Not only has he served as the town's mayor and currently sits on its town council, but he also operates his own business, Vineyard Garden Center, there. Large parcels of land near his home and garden center were once part of his business, including the ground where the 4-year-old Vineyard Elementary School now sits.

"I walked around when they built it and said 'That's where my beans were, that's where my pumpkins grew,' " he said.

Holdaway said long before the steel mill sprang up along the lake's shores, there was an earlier Vineyard Elementary where he attended school as a child. It's name was later changed to Union.

Perhaps it's because the modern Vineyard Elementary sits on land he once farmed and is so close to his own home, he feels a special kinship to the school.

As he has for several years, Holdaway contacted the school last week to find out how many Christmas poinsettia plants to deliver to the school as gifts to teachers, staff and classroom aides at Vineyard Elementary.

Sylvia Allan, the school's principal, said Holdaway has opened his heart to the school in a similar fashion for each of the last four years. The Vineyard farmer also hosts the school's annual Pumpkinland field trip at his garden center every October.

She was particularly touched by Holdaway's gesture to recognize school employees that often don't get the kind of public limelight they deserve.

"He just came in with a pickup truck load of 75 poinsettias," she said of the school's own devoted Santa Claus. "There was one for every teacher, every aide. It was really awesome ... Everyone loved [getting] the phone call to come down to the office and pick up their poinsettia."

Allan said Holdaway did this despite his business being vandalized twice this year.

"He still found it in his heart to be generous," she said. "The teachers were all so grateful."

Holdaway, reluctant to acknowledge his part in the giving of the gifts to the school, said the poinsettias were something that he had hoped to keep a Christmas secret.

"I love to go to the school there. We vote there now and have political meetings," he said. "The kids love the Pumpkinland ... They were supposed to be mum about it [the flowers]."

Holdaway, who sells 10 different color variations of poinsettias at his garden center, 435 S. Geneva Road in Orem, said poinsettias can last year round if cared for properly. Divulging more of his secrets, he said the three things to keep the plants looking good around the holidays and beyond are: To make sure they get plenty of light; water them, but not too much nor too little; and keep them away from areas where a cold wind might blow in, like a doorway.

Keeping them in a darkened room in the fall will trigger the colorful leaves' blooming mechanism to bring back the plants' signature crimson-hued leaves, he said.

"Eighty percent of our sales are red [poinsettias]," Holdaway said. "Red is the favorite."

For Vineyard Elementary, Grant Holdaway helps enliven the holiday spirit every year when December creeps around.

"It was a huge donation," Allan said. "There's been a lot of laughter and happiness in the school knowing that people appreciate their efforts."