The Festival of Wreaths & Trees
With Music! in Mount Union
2023 Annual Letter
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The 2023 Festival of Wreaths & Trees in Mount Union
To: All organizations, families, individuals, and businesses
October 16, 2023
Greetings from Leslie and Christine Armagost!
Christmastime will soon be here - are you looking forward to the Festival? We are!
The Festival of Wreaths and Trees in Mount Union will be hosted by the Mount Union Presbyterian Church (corner of Shirley and N. Division Streets), over the second weekend of December, 2023:
10AM - 7PM on Friday the 8th, 9AM - 4PM on Saturday the 9th, and 12 - 3PM on Sunday the 10th.
Setup will be on Thursday Dec. 7 from 3:00 PM to 9:00 PM; pick up after 3:00 PM Sunday.
We are delighted to announce that we will again be able to host student music performances on Friday Dec. 8, courtesy of Gretchen Burkholder! We’ll have a 1pm chorus performance and piano performances around 6pm Friday evening.
Our Facebook group is titled “Festival of Wreaths and Trees in Mount Union” and our website is FestWreathsTreesMU.com . Should something happen such that the Festival location has to close, like terrible weather, we can still hold the event online. We’re happy to offer online display and voting (via the website) for those who can’t make it in person, too!
Last year we tried out a general “Other” category, though no entrants opted to use it. It still seems to us like it might be a good category to keep around, though! Want to show off your Decorated Stockings? Nativity Scenes? Ugly Christmas Sweaters? Snowman Figurine or Vintage Santa Collections? This is the category for you!
The guidelines for entry are included with this letter, and are available in our Facebook group and on our website as well. (We recommend registration in advance so we can plan how to arrange the Festival, but if you just bring your entry on Thursday the 7th, we certainly won’t turn you away!).
Last year, we donated the proceeds of our Donated Item Sales to the Huntingdon County Humane Society. We’ll happily do so again this year! If you have any Winter holiday items you’d like to donate for our sales table, just bring them on Thursday or Friday so we can set them out. (These proceeds are separate from donations to the Festival.)
And finally, if anyone would like a turn to use the beautiful straw-colored tree this year, let us know as far in advance as possible. We’re pretty sure that it is actually an aging (and thereby discolored) white tree, but it sure aged gracefully, and is one-of-a-kind now - but we don’t know how many years more it will last. Hopefully everyone that would like to use it will be able to have a turn.
We would again like to thank Cathy and Norm Wilson for their years of work on the Festival! And special thanks to the MU Historical Society, the MU Chamber of Commerce, and the MU Presbyterian Church, and everyone who comes to help set up and take down the Festival, for their invaluable help!
Without all of you, the Festival of Wreaths and Trees would not be possible. We sincerely thank you all and hope to see you at the Festival!
-Leslie Armagost -Christine Armagost