Bertina Donahue stood elbow to elbow with her cousin and her cousin’s children, each carefully adding ornaments to a tree in Angelview Park in Fredericton.
“It started as a silly idea, and here we are,” she said.
She came up with the idea to decorate city trees while on a walk, and said once her cousin’s children found out, it took off.
They began decorating under the cover of darkness, but now they’ve gone public through an Instagram account, @festiveballsnb.
“It was a way to get out, it was a way to enjoy the weather that we’re having, and 2023 has been a hard year for people, so it was just a nice way to make people smile, make them happy,” Donahue said.
Their Instagram account documents trees they’ve set up — Donahue said they’ve decorated about 30 now. There are ornaments in red and green, blue and pink. Some are in the shape of stars and others are shaped like bells.
She said they choose trees that are near popular walking spots.
“We started calling them our Charlie Brown Christmas trees, because we go for trees that aren’t necessarily the prettiest or the fullest, they’re just kind of there, but something that people are going to notice,” she said.
Odell Park has a couple along its entrance — there’s a decorated shrub near a bridge, and a small, ornament-covered pine tree near the playground.
Hannah was walking through the park with her parents when she saw the bush.
“I think they’re pretty,” she said. She particularly pointed out a sparkly white ornament, and a shiny gold one.
Adam Jones also passed by the Odell decorations while he was on a walk with his son. He said he heard about Festive Balls NB through someone’s post on Facebook.
“Nice that people are out decorating a little bit. Just a little extra joy in the woods I guess,” he said.
Maureen McKee said she and her granddaughters used to decorate trees at Odell Park 20 years ago.
“Oh I think it’s wonderful! Having people involved in the outdoors and in Odell, like this is just a piece of paradise,” she said.
Donahue said one decorated tree was cut down by the city, and all the bulbs blew off another. But that hasn’t deterred her yet — she hopes to decorate a few more trees before Christmas, if the weather cooperates. She said after that, they’ll go back to each tree and take it all down.
But until then she wants the trees to encourage people.
“We’re having fun doing it, and I hope they just think of it as a warm, happy, fun idea,” she said.
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