FAIRFIELD — Bree Labbe looked out over the room full of decorated Christmas trees and smiled big.
“I wish I could have it at my house like this, but I’m not that creative,” she said. “It’s really amazing.”
Labbe, 14, of Fairfield, and her grandmother, Katrina Lavoie, visited the Good Will-Hinckley Festival of Trees opening day Sunday with Samantha Fortier and Fortier’s nieces, Calia Williams and Shelbie Poulin, both 11.
“It’s like, boom, pow!” Williams said.
They were mesmerized by the 24 trees decorated by community organizations, schools and artists, as well as a large stage set up with lit trees and a white reindeer pulling a sleigh, seemingly suspended in air.
“I just think it’s beautiful,” Lavoie said. “It’s pretty amazing — the money and time they put into it. There’s a lot of people that come to see it. I volunteered last year, and they came from all over.”
The 23rd annual Festival of Trees, sponsored by Sappi, will run through Saturday with daily tree viewing from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and an extended viewing Wednesday and Friday until 7 p.m. A Down Home Dinner will be held from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesday with tickets required in advance. At 7 p.m. Wednesday, the Lawrence High School Vocal Vibe Show Choir will perform.
Over the River Ringers will perform at 7 p.m. Friday. Breakfast with Santa will be 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. Saturday for a fee of $5 for adults and $3 for those under 18. A cookie decorating and woodworking program will be at 10:30 a.m., and Uniquely Music will perform at 1 p.m.
On Sunday, the Triple C Dance Team performed, headed up by Charity Spencer of Skowhegan. The children dancers took part in an activity with audience members in which kids transformed two people into Frosty the Snowmen by wrapping toilet paper around them, dressing them in hats and scarves and tying artificial carrots on their noses.
Off the lobby of Prescott Hall where the festival is held, Deborah Staber of L.C. Bates Museum ran the Bates gift shop where visitors could buy Christmas presents including puppets, rocks, minerals, gems, stuffed animals, jewelry and other items.
“A lot of it is nature-based because of what we do,” said Staber. “It helps support the museum.”
The museum, located on the Good Will campus, will host its annual Flora and Fauna of the Season program for families at 1 p.m. Dec. 19 for $3 for adults and $1 for children. Participants will make crafts and learn about the history of caribou, reindeer, poinsettias and other holiday-related items.
Michelle Theriault, Good Will’s development coordinator, and Barbara Gourley, decorator and coordinator of special events, said that of the 24 trees on display at the festival, seven have 3-foot-tall, pre-lit miniature trees beside them that look like the large ones and the little ones will be raffled off.
The trees at the festival are provided by Good Will-Hinckley, and nonprofit organizations and local artists provide ornaments and decorate the trees, according to Gourley. Sponsors of the trees help to provide funds for Good Will programs, she said.
The Cooking Up a Merry Christmas tree decorated by the Daughters of Isabella, St. Theresa Circle, and sponsored by GHM Insurance was decorated with cooking implements, little jars of oil, coffee and other food, measuring cups, spoons and spices. All the decorations and presents under the tree, including plates, will be donated to the Mid-Maine Homeless Shelter in Waterville, according to Gourley and Theriault.
“It’s a way of giving back to the community, to kind of get into the spirit,” Theriault said.
The For Our Animal Friends tree, decorated by the Spurwink School, Cornville, and sponsored by Spurwink, was covered with ornaments students purchased or made. The ornaments and animal-related gifts, including dog beds, under the tree will be donated to Somerset Humane Society in Skowhegan.
The Triple C Dance Team decorated the Music, Music, Music Tree, sponsored by ADA Fence Co., Inc. Other trees carried candy, fairy, recycling, Maine and nature-related themes.
Gourley said opening day was busy at the festival.
“It’s nice because it’s free and open to the public, and we have free entertainment and Santa visits all week,” she said.
She said Tom McCarthy of Central Maine Wreath in Skowhegan donated all the wreaths for the building.
“That is what I think makes our Prescott building beautiful, is to be able to showcase all our windows with wreaths,” she said. “Tom has a heart of gold.”
Amy Calder — 861-9247
Twitter: @AmyCalder17
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