Festival of Trees, a little holiday decorating inspiration

We are lucky in this corner of the world to have Ann's Place, a charitable foundation which helps cancer patients and eases the strain and grief of their families, including our own as they were very kind and endlessly helpful at a time when our family truly needed them. We would be pleased to support them in any way they asked but one of the loveliest ways Ann's Place interacts with the community at large is through their sparkling and magical Festival of Trees.

Ann's Place invites some thirty designers to decorate themed trees to be auctioned off at the cocktail party on the first night of the festival. Typically, they are remarkably creative and (thankfully) helpful in encouraging great ideas for one's own decorating since they are displayed the weekend before Thanksgiving.

Since we are in decorating full swing here in preparation for our own holiday party, we collected a wealth of fun ideas upon which we've still time to act. I thought you might enjoy a short stroll through the festival as well...

Poinsettia, woodland creatures, and pinecones. The more you look at this tree, the more you notice.





Wrapped in million layers of gold.

Lime green's and magenta's were huge, as in this pine cone tree.

Lime and magenta again, this time in one of our favorites of this year: Hydrangea.

Snow tipped with cardinals: A classic with some new woodland twists.

Another one of my favorites, this tree is both creative genius and a confession at all once: The spice cabinet is finally emptied of all those old tiny spice canisters. Genius!

Called the Venetian Table Tree, these were all hand sewn pastry ornaments.

A childrens tree. Adorable and sure to attract Santa!

Up close.

I think all the Festival guests had a good laugh over this creative adventure: The Redneck Tree.

A great idea for outside the house: A small garden trellis adorned with white berries, tonal hydrangeas, and twinkling lights. Great idea!