Wordy Women
2013 Community Christmas Tree Decorating Contest
In 2013, the Wordy Women book club decided to enter our community
Christmas tree decorating contest—rather at the last minute.
The contest is hosted and sponsored by the Colouratura Art Gallery
at Indian Brook, Cape Breton.
Each year in late November, interested people or groups design and install their (wildly) various interpretations of Christmas trees inside or outside the Gallery. On judging night, the public is invited in to share delectable desserts and seasonal hot drinks, and pick their favourite contest entry. Votes cost a dollar each, and the winning tree takes the entire pot from the evening. Then, the winnings are donated to the local non-profit or charity of the winner's choice. All in all, a brilliant event.
Our tree featured signals and relics of reading—paper ornaments derived from handmade "books", pages from books and magazines, interesting bookmarks, and bits of labels, as well as pens and pencils, reading glasses, and personal reading lights, all with an overall black-and-white theme. Our angel was the then-just-announced Nobel winner Alice Munro, and the tree skirt was made with piles of some of our more attractive books, things like encyclopedia sets and our favourite children's Christmas books.
And we won!
We had a wonderful evening touring the marvelous trees, and we donated a tidy sum to the Baddeck Library Foundation, which used the funds to buy new books. Perfect.