Festival of Trees returns to light up Oakville Place

Beth Christie, left, and Lori Sims, members of the May Court Club of Oakville, are running the Festival of  Trees.

STORY BY JONATHAN FERGUSON

The trees have returned to Oakville Place after a seven-year absence.

The Festival of Trees runs from Nov. 25 to Dec. 9, and five trees will be raffled off with proceeds going to charity.

There are five artificial Christmas trees up for raffle, each put together by a store from the mall including The Bay, Children’s Place, Purdy’s Chocolate, The Body Shop and David’s Tea.

The Bay has a brightly coloured tree with Hudson’s Bay-style crackers and ribbons, while David’s Tea is a bright baby blue covered in gift cards and Purdy’s Chocolate is wrapped in purple and gold ribbons with chocolate all over the tree.

“We did the festival every year but we haven’t done it for the past seven years,” said Beth Christie, a fundraiser with the organizing committee and continuing education student in portraits and fine arts at Sheridan. “But thanks to the generosity of Oakville Place donating the trees, the festival was able to come back.”

The public has welcomed the festival’s return.

“While I’ve been shopping I’ve mentioned to people that the Festival of Trees is starting up again and people have been so receptive,” said Christie. “They say, ‘Oh my God, we were wondering when you would bring that back.’ It’s a nice response to know people are excited for us to come back. It’s a warm welcome.”

The Body Shops Tree, Left, The Bay’s tree, middle, and David’s Tea’s tree, right, are some of the trees you could win

The festival is set up in the food court where tickets are available for $5.

“The merchants set up the trees from these five wonderful shops. They donated these trees and gift certificates. Each tree comes with a gift,” said Lori Sims, president of the May Court Club of Oakville. “Purdy’s tree comes with a year’s worth of chocolate if you win. The Bay is giving away gift cards and David’s Tea and Body Shop are doing the same.”

The May Court Club of Oakville has been around since 1956 and has been giving back to the community through fundraisers and the May Court Nearly New Shop on Kerr St. “We raise funds through the store. It is a service with affordable clothing for anyone looking to get back into work,” said Sims.

Students are encouraged to donate clothes to the store to help out those in need of affordable professional clothing. “Something students can do is donate clothing and then we give them 50 per cent of profit,” said Sims.

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All money raised by the May Court Club of Oakville is donated to various charities in Oakville.

“We are a group of over 200 women who raise funds and give service to the community,” said Sims. “Since our inception, we have raised over $2 million, donated to over 20 charities last year including food banks, Big Brothers Big Sisters, mental health for children, food for life and many different organizations.”

The Festival of Trees will end Dec. 9 with the raffle draw.

The trees will be delivered by each store to the winners.

“The shop will handle the delivery, and the tree will be moved fully decorated and ready to go fully assembled,” said Christie.

The winners of these trees will be announced Dec.9 and will be delivered to the home fully assembled