Sandy • Extravagantly decorated evergreens and a wide array of handcrafted gifts will fill the Mountain America Expo Center this week, giving visitors a dedicated place for holiday cheer sheltered from December’s chills.
The 54th annual Festival of Trees runs Wednesday through Saturday at the Sandy exhibition hall, with organizers expecting more than 80,000 Utahns to take in the sights and raise money for Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital.
“The Festival of Trees is an amazing way to start the holidays,” Katy Welkie, the hospital’s CEO, said Tuesday, at a media preview for the event. Welkie, who has been attending for more than 40 years — since she worked as a nurse at the pediatric hospital — said that the event is “all about gratitude and generosity.”
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) 1000 paper cranes tree at the Festival of Trees, in Sandy, on Tuesday, Dec 3, 2024.
The festival will feature 550 trees, all decorated and donated by volunteers. People can buy the trees, via a silent auction, as well as find seasonal items on sale — including handcrafted quilts, gingerbread houses, wreaths and Nativity scenes, as well as 5,000 pounds of fudge in 51 flavors. There’s also live entertainment scheduled each day, along with visits from Santa Claus and The Grinch.
All the items on sale have been donated to Primary Children’s, and the proceeds go to the hospital. Last year, the festival raised $3.4 million, with much of that money coming from the public, said Jonique Dyer, co-chair of the Festival of Trees Volunteer Board.
Welkie — who called the event a way to serve “kids across the entire Intermountain West” — said she hopes to top that figure this year.
“The needs keep growing,” Welkie said. “Much of the funding goes to help make sure that people that don’t have the ability to pay are able to be supported and receive the care they need.”
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Ruby Thackeray, an 11-year-old cancer patient who was treated at Primary Children's Medical Center, gets a hug from The Jazz Bear, at the Festival of Trees, in Sandy, on Tuesday, Dec 3, 2024.
One patient who knows what Primary Children’s can do is 11-year-old Ruby Thackeray, who at age 3 was diagnosed with stage 4 melanoma. She said it feels “great” to know the money from the festival goes to patients in need.
“It’s really nice to know that other kids are getting the same help I got,” Thackeray said.
At Tuesday’s preview, Thackeray, who was named the festival’s Patient Champion of the Year, put the finishing touches on a tree named in her honor, “Precious Ruby.” She got some help from Bear, the Utah Jazz’s mascot, who held onto an 8-foot ladder while Thackeray stood on an upper rung and secured a gold star to the top of her tree.
Ruby’s tree is decorated with donated toys and dry erase markers — Thackeray’s favorite item to pass the time during her hospital visits.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) A Troll Tree at the Festival of Trees, in Sandy, on Tuesday, Dec 3, 2024.
Dana Hussey, the other volunteer co-chair, said she joined the festival in 2015 after her son spent a month at Primary Children’s. Her favorite part of the celebration, she said, was seeing families “camp out” on decorating day, some staying for more than 12 hours.
“Every one of these trees has a story,” said Hussey. “[Volunteers] just want to have the opportunity for a healing experience. … And once they do it once, they come back next year because they love to be involved.”
For Dyer, delivering the trees – often donated anonymously to families or businesses – has become the event’s “cherry on top.”
“It’s such an emotional experience,” said Dyer, a festival volunteer since 2000. “It just makes the whole event for me.”
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Linda Lee with one of the tents she made for the Christmas Campground, at the Festival of Trees, in Sandy, on Tuesday, Dec 3, 2024.
Linda Lee, a member of the festival’s 80-member community volunteer board, took to creating the event’s “campground site” – an aisle of 31 bell tents dedicated to her late husband and inspired by her love for children and sewing. Before she goes on to help create the thousands of pounds of fudge during the four-day event, Lee dedicated more than 200 hours to embellishing the tents.
“I have 34 grandkids. I have 38 great grandkids. Many of them have been to the hospital. They need the help,” Lee said. “So I do it, and it keeps my imaginative juices going.”
Tickets for the festival are $10 for adults, $7 for children (ages 2 to 11), $8 for seniors (65 or older), or $40 for a family discount (good for two adults and 4 children). All tickets are available online at FestivalofTreesUtah.org or at the festival’s entrance. The event’s hours are 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesday through Friday, and 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday.
The silent auction, scheduled to begin Tuesday at 6 p.m., runs through 9 p.m. Wednesday, also at the Festival of Trees website.
