{"id":1576,"date":"2011-11-30T14:24:04","date_gmt":"2011-11-30T22:24:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=1576"},"modified":"2011-12-16T13:19:33","modified_gmt":"2011-12-16T21:19:33","slug":"festival-of-trees-turns-20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2011\/11\/30\/festival-of-trees-turns-20\/","title":{"rendered":"Festival of Trees turns 20"},"content":{"rendered":"

Who doesn\u2019t love a good, old-fashioned tree decorating party? The smell of evergreen, the twinkling lights, the bags of dog poo?<\/p>\n

At the Festival of Trees, this year celebrating its 20th<\/sup> anniversary, attendees never know what kind of creative decorations they\u2019ll come across while strolling through the festive forest.<\/p>\n

Running until January 9 at the Fairmont Empress Hotel, this BC Children\u2019s Hospital Foundation (BCCHF) fundraiser attracts sponsors from all over the city, eager to show off their tree-trimming prowess. And sometimes they go to great lengths to stand out from the crowd.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
One of the trees at Festival of Trees (photo by Nicole Beneteau).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThere was a tree last year done by a dog-related company that was decorated with doggy bags, as if there was poo in there,\u201d recalls Lorri Hewitt, BCCHF assistant to philanthropy.<\/p>\n

With over 75 trees on display, the competition can be fierce and forces sponsors to get creative.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was also a tree last year that was upside-down. That one really stuck in my mind,\u201d says Hewitt, who, along with organizing the festival, has strived to make visiting the trees a tradition in her family.<\/p>\n

After all, the Festival of Trees isn\u2019t all about outrageous decor. According to Medone Pelan, head of the Fairmont\u2019s tree-trimming committee, it\u2019s really about building community in the festive season.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really a community event,\u201d says Pelan. \u201cIt touches everybody in a special way. It\u2019s easy to embrace that. And it\u2019s for a such a good cause.\u201d<\/p>\n

The crew at the Fairmont are especially dedicated to the event, spending months making the decorations for their sponsored tree by hand. It\u2019s no wonder Pelan carefully guards the secret of this year\u2019s tree theme.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately,\u201d says Pelan, \u201cwe can\u2019t disclose that until the day of decorating.\u201d<\/p>\n

And those that think the fun of this event is all for the kids, think again. Pelan says that the night the trees go up is a highlight for everyone.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy personal favourite part of the Festival of Trees is the night of decorating; seeing everyone in a flurry of activity,\u201d she says. \u201cThere\u2019s so much excitement in the air, and it\u2019s the moment when you see the hotel transformed from the everyday. It\u2019s just something magical.\u201d<\/p>\n

Go to bcchf.ca\/fotvictoria<\/a> for more info on this free event.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Who doesn\u2019t love a good, old-fashioned tree decorating party? The smell of evergreen, the twinkling lights, the bags of dog poo? At the Festival of Trees, this year celebrating its 20th anniversary, attendees never know what kind of creative decorations they\u2019ll come across while strolling through the festive forest. Running until January 9 at the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1666,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life","category-november-30-2011"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1576"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1576\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1838,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1576\/revisions\/1838"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}