The Festival Of Trees | Wadsworth Atheneum | Christmas In Connecticut

For today’s Christmas in Connecticut post I have a very special holiday treat for you; the Festival of Trees at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford. This year the Wadsworth is celebrating it’s 46th’s annual Festival of Trees; a museum wide exhibition of the most beautiful and creative Christmas trees decorated and designed by local artists, businesses, clubs, museums, schools, and garden centers. The best part of the exhibit, which ends on December 8th, is that all of the trees are for sale and the funds support the museum.

The Festival runs from November 29-December 8th. A visit to the Wadsworth for the Festival of Trees costs: $3 for children, $15 for seniors and $18 for adults.

Before we dive into the magnificent galleries, I wanted to thank Jessica, the Communications Assistant at the Wadsworth, for taking the time to personally give me a tour of the Festival and allowing me to take photographs of the many beautiful trees around the museum. I learned so much about the museum, the trees, and the festival and it is an absolute pleasure to collaborate for this Christmas in Connecticut post. I truly appreciate your kindness!

As you can see in these maps below, the museum and the exhibits are quite large and Christmas trees can be found in the many galleries around the museum. Founded in 1842 by Daniel Wadworth and built in 1844, the museum itself is a beautiful work of historic art and houses more that 50,000 works of art and antiquities. Today’s tour begins in the Morgan Great Hall.

I had a hard time deciding which gallery room was my absolute favorite as all were beautiful and full of the most splendid trees. The Morgan Great Hall, pictured here, is definitely one of the most impressive rooms in the museum and the trees made it extra festive for this holiday season. Built in 1889, this room is still delighting visitors to the museum today. 

The custom decorations and details on these trees puts my decorating skills to shame. This hat tree topper was a cute idea:

A walk around these grand halls will inspire any guest to deck their halls at home for the holidays. I particularly loved looking at all of the handmade ornaments and the hall of wreaths. There are some truly spectacular and inspiring ideas that can be recreated at home this holiday season.

This airplane topper circulated around the top of the tree: 

Tour groups of children, seniors, and families arrived at opening to admire the halls of trees and the beautiful collections of art.

This Harry Potter tree was a big hit with the school children on tour:

In many of the galleries, the art work was paired with trees that matched the themes of the room and art.

Jessica told me how this seascape painting was thoughtfully paired with this nautical tree with an octopus topper and the lobster tree to the right. If you look carefully at each tree you will notice things that you did not see before. 

The Mark Twain House Museum donated this beautiful Mark Twain themed Christmas tree:

Children (and big kids too) will adore this Lego exhibit. 

This tree was donated by a local Girl Scout’s troop:

Every year the Festival of Trees features completely different and unique Christmas Trees so it is worth making this Festival a part of your annual Christmas in Connecticut tradition. See more Christmas in Connecticut ideas and inspiration on Instagram @LiveLovelyTravel and on Pinterest.