Festival of Trees rings in Christmas

One local community organization has brought back a holiday tradition in Tigerton.

Tigerton Main Street opened its Festival of Trees event at the organization’s office on Dec. 2. Visitors were treated to wintertime snacks and treats while they toured the office, which is decorated for the season with trees from various organizations in the area.

Also present at the event was the Grinch, who children and adults were invited to talk with and take pictures with. She explained that visitors are given the opportunity to vote on which trees that they like the best, using pennies. Whichever organization receives the most votes, will get a prize, which is yet to be named.

“Today, we are kind of bringing the community together with our annual Festival of Trees lighting,” said Tigerton Main Street Manager Amanda Marker. “The community can come in, look at the trees and vote on which ones they like the best. It is just something fun to do.”

Marker said the more than 20 trees on display are decorated by various businesses and organizations in Tigerton and in surrounding areas. Marker explained that the Festival of Trees lighting event is held in early December every year and helps not only to give the community an opportunity to meet each other and catch up, but also to help ring in the holiday season.

“I had a lot of volunteers who did the decorations, too, outside of the trees,” said Marker. “We like to hold this to help bring in Christmas spirit. This is one of our bigger events to help bring people together — this and Applefest in September.”

The lighting was the first day that visitors had the opportunity to tour the trees and enjoy some holiday treats. If someone missed it though, it is no problem, as Marker said that the trees will be on display through Christmas. She added that an updated schedule will be posted on Tigerton Main Street’s Facebook page, Tigerton Main Street Inc.

“I will be here from 1:30-4:30 p.m. every day throughout the week, and then we have some volunteers,” said Marker. “I am working on getting a schedule to put out to the public.”

In terms of preparation, Marker said that planning for the event happens weeks in advance. She said with the help of board members from Tigerton Main Street and other community members, the event was able to be set up smoothly.

“I had a couple of high schoolers come, and they dragged all the trees up to the second floor, and we had a haunted house set up for Halloween,” said Marker. “That was a way to utilize trees for something other than one month. It was like a little haunted forest.”

Marker added that seeing various community members come together to help Tigerton Main Street make this event a reality again was a welcomed sight and helped her to work on other things.

“It is so nice,” said Marker. “It has definitely been a relief that we have had all of this help.”

She said that Tigerton Main Street has around the same amount of trees as last year. She said that hasn’t stopped visitors from taking the tour of the trees in the building. Marker said that one thing that stuck out to her in their early hours of the lighting was seeing the amount of children and their reactions to the trees and The Grinch.

“I work at the elementary school too, so seeing the kids come in, me knowing who they are and seeing the excitement on their faces — it has been just a really nice start to the holiday season,” said Marker.

In terms of what visitors can expect when they arrive, Marker said that she wants visitors just to enjoy their time among the specially decorated trees.

“I would say just kind of let everything go, enjoy the decorations and get into the holiday spirit,” said Marker.

lreimer@newmedia-wi.com