Festival of Trees

In Edmonton every December for the past 26 years the University Hospital Foundation has treated us to a three-day long Festival of Trees. A large conference center is decorated in all things Christmas. It's an incredible sight. There's crafts room for the kids where they can decorate their own small Christmas trees, make Santa hats, etc., and for the parents there's a tea room for rest and refreshments, as well as a gift shop, sweet shop and ice cream shop. Local schools and clubs provide entertainment on the front stage. But the best part is the trees.



Mickey and I spent several hours there today, taking pictures and admiring the trees. There were over 100 of them, as well as a room full of gingerbread houses (which we forgot to visit). Here are a few of the best pictures. It was tricky getting good pictures because of the way the trees were grouped and the flood lights which changed colors regularly making white trees look at times blue, green, red, purple or gold.

The branches of this tree were made of pale green curved glass...very delicate and beautiful.

This butterfly tree was decorated with quilted fabric hearts.

This beautiful candy-themed tree was one of the people's choice award winners.

A hearth grouping

The display by the Edmonton Oilers NHL team features the team colors of copper and blue and the jersey of our #1 draft pick this year, Taylor Hall. Go Oilers!!

The snowmen on this tree had vaguely disturbing jack-o-lantern looking faces.

I love the penguins on this tree.

A delicate Angel topped tree

Pretty blue tree

This tree was trimmed in delicate glass and crystal but my favorite part of the display was the crystal glass reindeer in front of it.

A happy grouping of trees.

A white tree with Canadian woodland critters featured.

Mickey in front of the tree decorated with Mickey and Minnie Mouse

The white tree in the center is decorated with stuffed characters from the Toy Store movies.

This tree was garlanded with a huge feathered boa.

Toy Story tree up close

That's the fairy godmother standing with a tree decorated with princesses.

This was my favorite - the bright and happy Sunflower tree.


So that's just a few of the trees we saw today. Now I have to trim my own little tree - it won't look anything like these beautiful specimens, but it'll be ours, trimmed with ornaments we've had for years, and it'll be beautiful for us.

Have fun with your own tree trimming this year.