Festival of Trees puts spirit of season on display
Monarch butterflies cover the branches of one spring-themed tree. Photos by DANIELLE DERRICKSON/TIMES NEWS
A bow catches the light while situated on the branch of a rotating tree, one of the more than 40 on display for Bethany Wesleyan Church’s second annual tree festival.
A close-up of the butterflies covering one spring-themed tree.
A choir made from plywood greets visitors to the Bethany Wesleyan Church Tree Festival.
Oscar the Grouch in pine form emerges from his newspaper-covered trash can.
A Cookie Monster themed tree stands decorated with milk cartons and cobalt ornaments.
You walk into the life center of Bethany Wesleyan Church in Cherryville, led by a dimly lit archway through a single door.
From there, you’re surrounded by trees, some fluffy and plain, some adorned with only white lights and some bedecked from trunk to tip. One tree sits covered in a flurry of Monarch butterflies; three others depict the famed Sesame Street characters Big Bird, Cookie Monster and Oscar the Grouch.
At the end of the tour, there’s food available for purchase. And down the hall, classic holiday films play one after another.
If you make a donation to the church, the money — like all proceeds raised over four nights — will go toward Bethany Wesleyan missions, like one planned for Ecuador this summer.
That, in a nutshell, is what you’ll experience if you take part in Bethany Wesleyan Church’s newfound holiday tradition called the Festival of Trees, which is set to put on its final show for the year this weekend.
“You get to experience some of the hallmarks of the Christmas season — lights and food and trees and music — with an emphasis on giving back, not just at Christmas, but kind of throughout the year,” Casey Spencer, campus pastor of Bethany Wesleyan in Lehighton, said.
In its second year, the festival consists of more than 40 trees, all of which were found and decorated by the same couple who thought up the event: Donna and Mark Boyer of Slatington.
Donna said she was inspired by a trip to Disney World in Florida, when she walked the Disney Springs Christmas Tree Trail.
“Our friend said ‘I wonder if we can do this for church?’ ” Donna recalled. “That was kind of the start of it all.”
Organizing the festival, from planning the displays, picking up artificial trees from garage sales and fashioning decorations, takes the whole year.
But come December, Donna said, all that effort is made worthwhile.
“We really wanted to do something for our community,” she said. “I’m a Christian, and I’m doing it to serve the Lord, and I feel like this is a way that people can be introduced to the church, they can be introduced to the true meaning of Christmas.”
“We just did it so we can have this event for other people to enjoy.”
In Carbon County, Bethany Wesleyan’s reach is widening.
With a second location already in Lehighton, the church opened a third campus last month, extending its presence into Palmerton through the purchase of a former First United Church of Christ.
A month earlier, Bethany Wesleyan also bought the former Franklin Elementary School.
If you missed the first round of Bethany Wesleyan’s festival last weekend, don’t worry. There’s still time to take in the magic. The event is set to continue this Saturday from 2 to 8 p.m. and Sunday, from noon to 6 p.m.
