Third Time Is a Charm for Morven’s Festival of Trees

Linda Arntzenius

For the third year in a row Morven Museum and Garden has invited local businesses and garden groups to join in a Festival of Trees.

Thirteen galleries on the first and second floors of the historic former governor’s mansion have been decked out for the holidays with seven-foot high evergreens (synthetic rather than live because of potential water, resin, and fire hazards), table top, mantel, hearth, and window decorations created by Altina’s Custom Interiors, Amy Karyn Home, Be Merry Designs, Christie Robb, Cranbury Station Gallery, Dogwood Garden Club, Garden Club of Princeton, Hamilton Jewelers, Inez Scribner, Nassau Inn, Princeton Doll and Toy Museum, Stony Brook Garden Club, Tibbetts Interiors, Westminster Choir College, and, for the first time, Town Topics newspaper.

On entering through the museum’s West Wing opposite the gift shop, visitors will find a collection of vintage Santas in Altina’s “Santa Claus is Coming to Town.” A peek into the dining room reveals “Dining in Style,” a table top tree decorated by Bobbie Aldrich in keeping with the Colonial Revival period. It’s adorned with dried roses, hydrangea, yarrow, and red berries that harmonize with the Boudinot family collection of 18th-century porcelain on display.

Hamilton Jewelers takes pride of place in the parlor, as it did last year. This year’s theme is “Commemorating 1912” in recognition of the store’s approaching centennial. The Edwardian-style tree features memorabilia from almost a century ago with a touch of whimsy by way Lifesaver candies (1912 being the year of the Titanic).

“Alice in Wonderland,” by the Garden Club of Princeton in the garden room, is a delightful rendition of Lewis Carroll characters: Alice and her friends, as well as the not so friendly (Queen of Hearts) and the very curious (Cheshire Cat, Tweedledum and Tweedledee).

Sharing space in the garden room, too, is “The Garden State” by the Stony Brook Garden Club in celebration of the state’s many fine gardens, and Inez Scribner’s “Miniature Masterpieces” showcasing the designer’s own collection of heirloom needlepoint ornaments.

“Material Girl,” by Amy Karyn Home features the designer’s antique and hand-made fabrics in the morning room, through which visitors access the library where there are three trees: Cranbury Station Gallery’s “The Art of Holidays,” Nassau Inn’s “Golden Age of Travel,” and “Historical Topics,” decorated by the staff of this newspaper using stories and photographs snipped from 60 years of Town Topics.

Upstairs Galleries

Tibbetts Interiors has again gone to town in the East Wing study, with a Williamsburg-inspired extravaganza, “Christmas in Bloom,” using dried hydrangea, faux amaryllis, fruits and berries, trimmed in red and gold. “White Christmas” by Be Merry Designs, also in the study, presents a single color palette that sparkles with light.

Like Altina’s tree on the first floor, Christine Robb has chosen Father Christmas/Santa in his many manifestations for “Spirit of St. Nick,” upstairs in the front West Chamber.

The front East Chamber reveals “Make a Joyful Noise” by Westminster Choir College, which features original choir robes at its base as well as musical instruments, and images of conductors and musicians. “An Old Fashioned Christmas,” by the Princeton Doll & Toy Museum in the West Wing, is decorated with tin toys and costumed dolls that are available for sale in the museum shop.

Since the Festival of Trees overlaps with the museum’s current celebration of Benjamin Franklin, items from the “Ben Again!” exhibit form a backdrop in several rooms with displays of books and wall plaques recording his sayings. The trunk room has been illustrated by Sherry Bufano with Franklin maxims such as “You cannot pluck roses without fear of thorns” and “In rivers and bad governments, the lighter things swim at the top.”

Inspired by Franklin’s contributions to society and science, the Dogwood Garden Club presents “Keys, Kites & Kismet: an Electrifying Holiday,” in the back chamber.

The Doll House

No visit to Morven is complete without a view of the Large House in Miniature, which has been decorated for the season with sleigh and reindeer on the roof and Santa disappearing down the chimney. The model doll house in the East Wing chamber on the second floor is a 40-inch high, 1-inch-to-the-foot replica of the historic 19th-century Greek Revival style mansion in Flemington.

The 20-room, four-floor model has appliances with working parts and furniture whose open drawers reveal tiny clothes. There are mousetraps in the kitchen, and felt toys in the upstairs nursery.

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The Festival of Trees at Morven’s Festival of Trees, 55 Stockton St., runs through January 6, Wednesday to Friday, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday, noon to 4 p.m. Admission is $5, including parking. For more information, call Morven at (609) 924-8144, ext. 106, or visit: www.morven.org.

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