Get ready for a western Christmas

Jeff Green | Dec 08, 2011

The Villages Beautiful Festival of Trees, which starts today at the Oso Hall in Sharbot Lake and runs through to Saturday afternoon, has a western theme this year, promising to bring the same mix of Christmas decorations, music and a touch of ‘Anything Goes’ that has made it such a popular event over the years.

This is the tenth Festival of Trees (the event ran for 7 years, then took a year off and was resurrected two years ago) and in addition to about 15 trees that will be available for raffle, there are wreaths, gingerbread houses, gift baskets and more, all of which will be divvied out to the lucky winners on Saturday afternoon. Admission is a donation to the food bank.

Among the musical groups who will perform this year, the Arden Glee club will grace the stage on Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m., as they have every year (Festival organizers apologize for missing the Glee Club in the schedule of events that was published in last week’s paper.)

The Sharbot Lake Line Dancers start the entertainment at 6pm on Thursday night. New to the Festival this year are Old Habits (a.k.a. Guy Cooke and Friends) on Thursday at 7pm, following the line dancers.

The Blue Skies Fiddle Orchestra kicks off the Friday afternoon schedule at 4 p.m., followed by Barb Agnew’s piano students at 5:30, Barb Agnew at 6:00 and Anne Banks and Redneck Blvd, at 6:45.

On Saturday, the resurgent Young Choristers open up the day at 10:30, followed by Young Choristers musicians at 11a.m. After lunch, Melanie Fyfe (one of the featured musicians at the Maberly Choir’s concert last week) will perform at 1 p.m. The Arden Glee Club will perform next and as is the norm, the Ardendaires will close the festival with a show that runs from 2:50 to 3:30.

The highly anticipated prize draws take place at 4 p.m.