Trees of Christmas- Meadville Garden Club

Goal: $20,000.00

Specific Need

The goal of the Trees of Christmas - Meadville Garden Club is to raise $20,000 to help cover operational costs to present this spectacular 100th Anniversary Celebration event to the community in November 2024. The funds will help cover the costs of the live trees, commemorative ornament, exterior and interior house decorations, Boutique expenses and publicity.

Mission

Katherine Reynolds, a founding member of the Meadville Garden Club 100 years ago, would be honored that her former home, now known as the Baldwin-Reynolds House Museum, "springs to life" every two years at Christmas as the Meadville Garden Club decorates for the biennial Trees of Christmas.

In 1924, Reynolds and 12 other community-minded women started the Meadville Garden Club, and their first event was a tea and flower show held at her spectacular home with a purpose — to study gardening and allied subjects and stimulate community interest in better gardening and city improvement.

For more than 80 years, these energetic ladies held flower shows to raise funds to landscape the library. They also planted shrubs and trees on a donated plot used to beautify the community, and in 1943, they even planted Victory Gardens.

It was not until the 1960s that the community focused on the Baldwin-Reynolds House Museum. It began when the Meadville Garden Club received the top prize in a civic beautification contest for restoration of the garden area and the house. The event, sponsored by Sears, Roebuck & Co. through the Pennsylvania Federation of Garden Clubs District VIII, gained attention. In 1965, the home became a historical museum.

A decade later, because of depleted funds needed to care for the house, the club sponsored the first Trees of Christmas in 1975, a three-day event to raise money. The club was given permission to use the name Trees of Christmas from an organization at Cheekwood in Nashville, Tennessee.

After the first successful event, it was repeated in 1976 and thereafter on a biennial basis. Throughout the years, funds have been donated for inside work and grounds upkeep.

This year's event celebrates the club's 100th anniversary with the theme "Christmas Through the Years." As part of this special occasion, the museum will feature Christmas displays spanning the past 100 years, offering an insightful journey through holiday traditions and decorations.

Saundra Mook presents the 100-year-old Garden Club history.

Contributed photo