Literary Themed Christmas Trees
Ahh the Festival of Trees! Our favorite time of the year!! Here in Salt Lake City, the Festival of Trees, is an annual event where individuals, groups, and organizations decorate and donate Christmas trees, wreaths, centerpieces, quilts, gingerbread houses and gift items. Everything is auctioned off and every single penny (I literally mean every single penny – everything is done on a volunteer basis) goes to the Primary Children’s Medical Center.
It is their largest fundraiser and raises millions of dollars. Between 70,000 and 80,000 people attend the festival each year and there are hundred of trees. Many of the trees are donated in somebody’s name or by friends and family of children who have either passed or have received compassionate care at the hospital. Many of the stories and photos of the children will make you cry.
To say that I adore this fundraiser is an understatement. It is simply amazing!! Each year, I have taken special notice of the literary themed Christmas trees so I can share them with you here.
Anne of Green Gables themed Christmas tree:
There is always a Harry Potter inspired tree:
And while there is a Twilight inspired Christmas tree every year, this year there was not one, not two, not three, not four but five Twilight Christmas trees. Obviously, a lot of fans around here.
Three Wizard of Oz trees:
Peanuts tree:
Dr. Suess is always a popular tree:
This Dr. Suess tree is titled, “Oh, The Places You’ll Go:”
This tree was gorgeous! Complete with bookish quotes, a fireplace underneath, and all kinds of wrapped books:
Goodnight, Moon:
The Jungle Book:
Lot’s of snowmen books under this snowman tree:
The name of this tree was A Critter’s Christmas and it had a lot of bug type books included:
Winnie the Pooh is another tree that we see every year:
The Secret Garden inspired Christmas tree:
A picture book Christmas tree complete with a paper mache Where the Wild Things Are. I didn’t get it in the photo but there was also a good sized bookcase full of books included.
These little elves were just too cute. And fun books too!
Christmas picture books included with this tree:
While this tree was not inspired by one particular book, it was just too adorable to pass up. Lots of princess books were under the tree.
I loved Raggedy Ann and Andy when I was little:
The books that were with this little tiny tree were almost as big as the tree which was titled, A Christmas Story:
Only one Nightmare Before Christmas tree this year. My little boy said this theme was what he would be watching for.
A Jane Austen Christmas:
Diary of a Wimpy Kid:
This little tree was set up on a gorgeous Lord of the Rings chess set:
And while these last few may not particularly be literary inspired, they get honorable mentions here because they were so creative. Although, Cookie Monster shows up in a lot of books though right?
And this surfing Santa was made with four leaning Christmas trees:
And yes, these are tires:
And two of my boys favorite trees that they couldn’t get enough of:
Did you have a favorite?! Tell me which one you loved the most. And if you didn’t get your fill, check out year’s past for more.
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Tags: Christmas, Festival of Trees, holidays, literacy, traditions, Virtual Advent Tour
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What a great thing to do every single year! My favorite is the princess tree though the Dr. Seuss one is a close second. Thanks for sharing this with us!
on December 5th, 2010 at 7:48 pmWhat a fun event!! I would have trouble picking out a favorite, but I’m sure Carl would enjoy the tire tree since he works for a tire company.
on December 5th, 2010 at 7:58 pmI love them all! No way can I possibly pick a favorite. (I’m guessing my kids would like the Peanuts and the Diary of Wimpy Kid trees the best … I’ll have to show them this post.)
on December 5th, 2010 at 8:36 pmThis was the first time I went this year. It was so much fun. I loved the Dr. Seuss tree. I missed The Nightmare Before Christmas tree; I’m so sad. I told my friend who I was with that if I ever did a tree again, it would be a Nightmare Before Christmas tree. My favorite tree out of the bunch was the Scrabble tree. I loved the rug that came with it and have made acquiring one my new mission in life.
on December 5th, 2010 at 9:17 pmOh I love it! I haven’t ever had a chance to go! Soo fun to see all the book-type trees!
on December 5th, 2010 at 10:35 pmOh my goodness these trees are awesome! I think my faves are the Dr Seuss and Secret Garden ones.
They used to do something like this in the small town I was born in (lewiston, id) but it was on a much smaller scale but still always fun to go to!
on December 5th, 2010 at 10:59 pmThis sounds like such a great event! I love the Goodnight Moon tree–gorgeous.
on December 5th, 2010 at 11:43 pmOh good heavens! This is simply incredible! What an amazing event. I’m on the other end of the country but this might be worth take a trip to see, some year. This is SUCH an amazing thing! Thanks so much for sharing.
on December 6th, 2010 at 4:28 amLove, love, love this post! how awesome!
Thanks so much for sharing as part of the Virtual Advent tour!
on December 6th, 2010 at 4:37 amWhat a great idea for charity, and what a wonderful trees, too. I love the pink one (with princesses) the best, although in real life it could be a bit too much.
on December 6th, 2010 at 4:58 amLoved the Once Upon a time and the Princess tree (explosion of pink!).
Thanks for sharing!
on December 6th, 2010 at 5:07 amI loved looking at these Christmas trees! My favorite is the Dr. Seuss tree. I would guess that the favorite trees with children were the superhero tree and the princess tree.
I have a tiny little tree in my library that is decorated with tiny picture books.
Thank you so much!
on December 6th, 2010 at 6:13 amWhat an amazing and wonderful festival! I’m a real traditionalist about trees and like them quite simple – I like the Secret Garden and Christmas books trees best.
on December 6th, 2010 at 7:10 amOh wow, what an amazing post! Those Christmas tress were fantastic! I loved the Secret garden one and the pricness tree (because I know my nieces would adore all that pink!) and of cours the Twilight ones (OK, I might be 20 years too old for RPatz but he’s still lovely
)
Great post.
on December 6th, 2010 at 8:09 amOh wow!!! Thanks for sharing these pictures – those trees are absolutely gorgeous!
on December 6th, 2010 at 9:42 amMaritimer here, loving the Anne of Green Gables tree!!
Also loved the 2nd Wizard of Oz tree, the 1st of the Twilight trees with the red/white/black color scheme and attention to iconic imagery like the apples and chess pieces (nicely put together,) the elves-up-the-ladder tree and the pink-and-white princess tree.
No wonder you can’t wait for this event every year! Merry Christmas, Natasha.
on December 6th, 2010 at 10:42 amI love this post. It’s so cheerful. My favorite is probably the Once upon a Time tree.
on December 6th, 2010 at 11:25 amLoved the Anne of Green Gables and Goodnight Moon trees . . . and that LOTR chess set! Lovely pics! (Stopping in from the virtual tour site.)
on December 6th, 2010 at 12:17 pmHow awesome! I love them all but always have a soft spot for Winnie the Pooh. I wish we had something like this around here.
on December 6th, 2010 at 12:25 pmI love that Harry Potter Tree!
on December 6th, 2010 at 12:28 pmOh, they’re all so gorgeous. I wouldn’t be able to pick just one….
Thanks for sharing.
on December 6th, 2010 at 12:34 pm[...] I think I’d make a The Nightmare Before Christmas tree. (I missed the one at the festival this year because we didn’t get a chance to see the smaller [...]
on December 6th, 2010 at 1:40 pmWow, gorgeous trees! I think my favorite is The Jungle Book tree, the monkey on top of it is so cute.
Greetings,
on December 6th, 2010 at 4:09 pmTiina
Oh! I want to visit! Love all the trees but I loved the Peanuts and Dr Suess ones! I think my favourite one would be The Secret Garden! Thanks so much for sharing these!
on December 6th, 2010 at 4:17 pmThank you so much for posting these! I was so sad that I would not be able to make it to the Festival of Trees. I am a volunteer at PCMC so it is a cause dear to my heart. My favorite has to be the princess tree. So cute.
on December 6th, 2010 at 5:25 pmMy daughter would go crazy for the princess one! I like the red and silver one. So pretty! What a great event!
on December 7th, 2010 at 6:17 amThe Harry Potter tree was quite clever. And I loved the surfing Santas! Thanks for sharing this with us every year.
on December 7th, 2010 at 6:30 amI heart the Anne of Green Gables tree!
THese were great!
on December 7th, 2010 at 9:12 amFantastic idea, really great. i liked The Secret Garden tree but there are many pretty ones.
on December 7th, 2010 at 9:19 amI always really love these trees! It’s such a great idea. I wish they would pick up the idea around here. I am not nearly creative enough, but other people are!
Thanks for joining in again!
on December 7th, 2010 at 11:52 amLoved these trees – what a glorious idea and to be surrounded by all these literary Christmas trees. My fave? oh geez, definitely the Princess tree but it was so darn cute and filled up beautifully and actually, the Raggedy Ann and Andy tree AND the “Once upon a Time” tree which was truly fabulous. Yup, those are my faves but would love to walk around and see them all.
on December 7th, 2010 at 10:11 pmIt never occurred to me to do a literary tree. I should give it a whirl.
Thanks for sharing this event.
Happy holidays to you and yours!
I love the Doctor Seuss trees. But really, they’re all awesome. Also love the Cookie Monster one.
on December 7th, 2010 at 11:20 pmI do love the festival of trees, but I haven’t been for a few years. I also really like the gingerbread house display. Do they still do that? I would say my favorite was the Lord of the Rings tree–just because I would really like that chess set.
on December 8th, 2010 at 11:45 amThese are soooooooo amazing. Wow!!!
on December 9th, 2010 at 1:54 pmI SO totally love like all of these!
on December 9th, 2010 at 5:51 pmLOVE this! it’s a booklover’s xmas tree heaven!
on December 10th, 2010 at 3:30 pmNatasha,
on December 10th, 2010 at 6:33 pmI was thinking about you when I went to the festival of trees. I loved the Cookies Monster tree, but I also loved trees that looked like snowmen! I missed seeing some of the trees you photographed, because my nephew was done when we arrived. So thanks!
This is one of my favorite posts you write each year! I love seeing how creative people are and all the literary themes. I think my fave is probably the Harry Potter one, but Dr. Suess and the princess ones are up there. My son would definitely pick the superhero one though!
on December 11th, 2010 at 9:09 amI always look forward to this post too! I don’t know if I would have liked it as a kid (since I was kind of a tomboy), but that princess tree is so pretty!
My husband would love the LOTR chess set.
on December 12th, 2010 at 1:54 pmLoved the Lord of the Rings tree! And the Nightmare before Christmas!
on December 13th, 2010 at 9:45 amWhat an amazing event. I have never seen anything like that before. Will have to research what it takes to put something like this together in my part of the woods. Although not book-inspired, the surfing Santa tree is awesome.
on December 14th, 2010 at 11:43 pmI’ve always wanted go to this but somehow Christmas is the time of year I’m NEVER in Salt Lake. Usually fall or spring or when I was little summer.
Thanks for sharing with us–one of these days I’ll see in person.
on December 19th, 2010 at 1:35 pmWhat wonderful trees! When we lived in Chicago we’d visit the Christmas Around the World exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry. Each tree had the theme of a country and their native decorations. They also included displays for the symbols of other religions’ December holidays. It’s a great tradition!
on December 22nd, 2010 at 9:34 am[...] I saw this post last week sometime and thought in the spirit of Christmas, I would share these literary themed [...]
on December 23rd, 2010 at 5:37 pm