The Converse County Library in Glenrock, Wyoming, hosted their third annual Christmas Tree Festival this year. Their kickoff event was held on December 7.“The Christmas Tree Festival is an annual event that connects our community and gives organizations, businesses, churches, and families a chance to decorate a Christmas tree together,” said Jennifer Kofoed, Glenrock Library’s branch manager.
This year, 40 entries were submitted, ranging from table top trees to ones that are eight feet tall. Realizing that not everyone has a tree available to decorate, the library loans a variety of trees for the event.
“The availability of trees to borrow has been greatly appreciated and has also led to donations of trees for future years,” said Jennifer.
The Christmas Tree Festival benefits everyone involved, including the library patrons that get to see the amazing variety of beautifully decorated trees and have opportunities to help those in need, as well as the organizations who submit entries.
In addition to a People’s Choice competition, in which library patrons stop in and vote for their favorites, the library provides a scavenger hunt listing specific items included on the various trees in order to encourage everyone to look at all of the entries.
Businesses and organizations who participate benefit by getting the word out about their services. This year the local veterinary clinic requested their patients’ animal photos to be submitted on Facebook, which they printed for the ornaments for their tree. Within 24 hours, they had over 200 photo submissions, giving them a personalized way to connect with the families they serve. A local gas station does a drawing to win their tree each year. They run the drawing at their business, so anyone interested in winning is encouraged to visit their location in person. This year, Glenrock’s local sheepherders have ventured beyond a tree and have set up an entry decorated as a sheepherding wagon. The local Police Department and Fire Department challenge each other each year to try to have the best tree.
“It has been great seeing organizations and families come together for some friendly competition,” said Jennifer.
Patrons can also give back to the community through some of the entries. The tree from the Humane Society has a dropbox for donations. The Silver Bells tree, hosted by a youth group, provides lists of personalized gift ideas for local seniors who could use some holiday cheer, and they have a dropbox to leave gifts to be delivered to the seniors.
Besides tree decorating as a holiday event, the Glenrock library also does a book sale, a daily Elf on the Shelf finding contest, and a gift-wrapping station with free Christmas paper, bags, bows, and ribbons.
“We love being able to offer this event and we have a lot of people in our community who are excited to participate each year, whether they are registering to decorate a tree, are stopping by to look at all the creative entries, or are taking advantage of the free gift-wrapping supplies,” said Jennifer. “It’s become a great tradition in our library and also brings folks from neighboring towns to see all the festivities.”
Is your library doing something special for the holidays? Contact the Wyoming State Library’s Communication and Grants Specialist, Christi Weinzierl, at christi.weinzierl1@wyo.gov or (307) 777-5919 to share your great news. The WSL loves to share all the great things Wyoming libraries are doing!