Festival of Trees puts personal touch on display
The scent of pine is already strong and mixing with the sweet aroma of gingerbread coming from the room to my right. It’s a combination of smells that sends the memories flooding in.
This is the Festival of Trees, the Orlando Museum of Art’s starting pistol shot for the holidays for the past 31 years. Presented by the nonprofit Council of 101, companies and organizations donate time and decorating dollars to design and bedeck Christmas trees, table settings, wreaths and cookie-made vignettes. (10 a.m.-5 p.m. daily through Sunday, $15 adults, omart.org)
The resulting creations are then sold to benefit the gallery’s exhibits and educational programs.
I’ve been granted a sneak peak on a morning before it opens to watch the titular trees receive their titular festiveness.
Holidays are personal. Though we all recognize the iconography of a Fraser fir, those who grew up with Christmas in their houses picture different boxes beneath them and different smiling faces around them. So it’s interesting to think about what these decorations will invoke in the people who see them.
Take the nine-foot tree Dicky Stegall is adorning on behalf of Hubbard Construction. The timber is flocked with fake snow and throughout the branches are red cardinals. Behind the tree is a wreath and false mantle, also with cardinals and laced with dogwood.
“It reminds me of my daddy,” says Stegall, who is designing a tree for her third year. She decided to include elements in honor of her father, who died more than 10 years ago.
Stegall also has a tradition of including lanterns and orchids. “If it’s one of my trees, it’s going to have an orchid on it somewhere,” she said. Here it’s tucked away on a lower branch.
Noel McGuigan with West Orange Women has taken a different approach. Her tree is primarily white ribbon, owls and polar bears, creating a winter scene. What people might not notice is that she has paired older owls with owlets and polar bears with cubs. It was something one of her grandchildren suggested.
The festival features an Ugly Sweater Date Night today (7 p.m., $25) and Breakfast With Santa on Saturday (8:30 a.m., $30). Wandering around, patrons won’t be able to decipher all the hidden details the decorators have snuck in. They’ll be too busy making memories of their own.