Beading for Preservation

Lush Beads Donates Tree to be Raffled Off


There are a lot of ways an organization can raise money for its cause.
Some people in the city of Methuen has come up with a very interesting
way: solicit businesses, civic groups and individuals to donate fully
decorated Christmas trees, build a beautiful festival around these
trees, and sell tickets to raffle them all off to lucky winners! The
organization uses the money it raises for historic preservation
projects.

For 14 years, The Methuen Festival of Trees has been a lovely way to
ring in the holiday season. Starting just before Thanksgiving and
running until the beginning of December, this festival now boasts over
200 fully decorated Christmas trees up for auction, several mini trees
for silent auction, and a whole other room full of items up for
auction. The competition is fierce - awards are given out for Best in
Show, Best Use of Theme, Best Tree Topper, Most Traditional, etc.

I found the festival in 2004, when I saw an ad in a local paper. I
was intrigued - it sounded like a lovely idea, but would the execution
be as wonderful as the ad made it sound?

Walking in, it is a magical Christmas wonderland. The lights, the
decorations, and the creativity are all stunning. People were so
excited about the trees and the atmosphere, and they were buying a lot
of raffle tickets! I decided then that I needed to be a part of this.

This is my third year donating a tree to the festival. My theme this
year is "A Christmas Ball". The tree has beaded garland and beaded
ornament balls all over it. On the top is a giant beaded ball. The
tree skirt is red and has ornaments pinned to it. Almost all of the
beaded ornaments were done by me. (The rest were done by my friend
Kathy). It took a lot of time and effort but, as the photos show, the
results were worth it!

The show runs from November 17 thru December 1. Admission is $8. Visit their website for more details (note that the website is only friendly to Internet Explorer): www.methuenfestivaloftrees.com

I hope to reproduce some of the ornaments to sell in my Etsy shop, so keep your eyes open for those to appear in a week or so! lushbeads.etsy.com

Happy holidays!