
Contributed report
Enjoy a stroll through an indoor Christmas wonderland now through Jan. 6 at the Wright County Historical Society’s (WCHS) 17th Annual Festival of Trees display.
For the entire month of December, the museum, located at 2001 Hwy. 25 north of Buffalo, is lit up with 90 Christmas trees decorated to the T by local businesses and organizations and everybody is invited to enjoy it, for free.
The Festival of Trees is touted as the largest indoor holiday tree display in Minnesota, but it had very humble beginnings.
It all started with a desire for Wright County residents to become more aware of the programs that take place at the WCHS throughout the year and to encourage area businesses and organizations to get involved.
“We have a big gallery here and I thought it would be a good idea to ask local businesses and community members to decorate a Christmas tree where people could come for free and enjoy the holidays,” WCHS Business Manager Sally Stevens said. “It would give businesses the opportunity to show their community spirit as well as being a way to get more people through the door to see what we have to offer and let people know what a treasure this place is.”
In its first year in 2006, there were 15-20 trees decorated and about 80 people showed up just to see the display. Last year, more than 2,500 people came through the doors to see 88 decorated trees. This year there are 90 trees. The growth of the Festival of Trees has been so pronounced that this was the first year that the event ran out of spots and had to turn potential tree decorators away.
It took about a decade for the event to take off in terms of the number of trees and attendance to spike, but that came crashing down like so many other events in 2020 when COVID hit. It has taken a couple of years for the attendance to return to pre-COVID levels, but Stevens is pleased to announce that the advance buzz for the 2023 Festival of Trees is stronger than ever.
“COVID hurt us quite badly,” Stevens said. “We had 3,000 people come through the doors for the 2019 Festival of Trees. In 2020 we had to shut down because of COVID. We came back in 2021, but we had a lot of COVID protocols that were in place and people were still afraid to come out for public gatherings. We dropped to about 1,500 people that year. Last year, we had 2,500 and we could see every day that things were picking back up. I’m convinced this year will be our biggest year ever.”
The Festival of Trees brings in a cross-section of people of all ages. From children who stare in awe at the array of uniquely decorated trees to senior citizen groups that make an afternoon of viewing. Stevens said that, like the WCHS events during the rest of the year, there is something for any age.