By Eric Christiansen
echristiansen@nmpaper.com
NORTH MANCHESTER, Ind. — Community members will have a chance to feel the Christmas spirit on Dec. 2, when Timbercrest Senior Living Community will host its fifth annual Festival of Trees from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.
The event has grown every year, with local businesses and organizations sponsoring trees as part of the festivities.
“The Festival is a great way to add to the Christmas décor at Timbercrest, and creates a fun event and atmosphere for families and the community to come and enjoy the trees,” Timbercrest Community Relations Coordinator Carrie Vineyard said. “This is a good way for businesses and non-profit organizations to be recognized for what they do. It isn’t about which tree is the prettiest—it’s not for a contest. We just really appreciate that they give of their time and resources to decorate the trees.”
Vineyard anticipates nearly 80 trees will be featured for the festival, which will be spread throughout the campus.
Timbercrest supplied trees for the first festival in 2013, but since then, any new sponsors supply, decorate and light their own trees, where spots are reserved for the tour, with the sponsors’ name next to the tree.
“We want to recognize that some of the tree sponsors don’t have a lot of extra funds, so we really appreciate that they provided the trees, lights and decorations,” Vineyard added.
One tree Timbercrest does provide is for the North Manchester Food Pantry, and all food donated is presented to the pantry.
“We encourage anyone able to provide a food item to bring it to donate to the local food pantry. It’s something we started a few years ago—thinking how we can utilize this event to give back to the community in another realm,” Vineyard said. “We fill it up every year, and it overflows to the Hub and the front with boxes of food.”
With the tour of trees spreading over the entire Timbercrest community highlighting the event, Santa Claus will be in the Hub sunroom to visit with children, free hot cocoa and cookies will be served in the Rose Garden dining room and in the Snack Shop, face painting will in the quilt room and live reindeer will be visiting until 1 p.m.
Another crowd favorite of the day is the bazaar, which will be in two locations, the Assembly Room and the chapel, with vendors on hand offering a variety of items for all ages and tastes.
“I’m proud of the bazaar,” Vineyard said. “It’s a good balance that fits all age groups for Christmas shopping.
“We encourage people to go through the campus to see all the trees and visit the bazaar rooms.”
A map will be provided at entrances with locations of all of the trees, as well as a list of activities.
There will also be trees in the Timbercrest Health Care Center.
“Residents in Health Care really enjoy seeing people come and go, and we will have a handful of trees back there as part of the tour,” Vineyard said.
Also among the activities are Letters to Santa. Manchester Elementary School students will have letter forms sent home to give to Santa the day of the festival. The letter forms will also appear in local papers and on the Timbercrest Facebook page. If they give a letter to Santa, their names will go into a drawing for a chance to win a new bike, one for a boy and one for a girl.
With more than 200 residents at Timbercrest Senior Living Community, Vineyard stressed how blessed and thankful the entire community is for the effort put in to this event.
“We appreciate the sponsors coming in offering their time and resources, because Timbercrest is someone’s home,” she said. “We love that we can bring a lot of Christmas spirit right to them from community members who are helping decorate their home.”
Parking is available in the front lot, and on the north side of the campus in the Hub parking lot.
In case of inclement weather, including snow, grass parking will not be available, but Timbercrest will provide a shuttle that will pick festival-goers up at Manchester University in the parking lot north of the Jo Young Switzer Center (Union) on East Street.