Festival of Trees is a Christmastime tradition, and we’re smack-dab in the middle of it right now. So we ventured out to discover the stories behind the people who make it sparkle.
- Dicky Stegall is a local designer, now in her seventh year at the Festival of Trees at the Orlando Museum of Art.
- Instead of her usual 7-footers, she’s responsible for decorating a 14-foot tree this year — frankly because she’s gotten so good at it. In fact, her tree is the centerpiece of the rotunda. “You sit back and you can’t believe you created something like this,” she said, beaming. But, “[The pressure] gets really tough around the last day, yes. You get really nervous.”
- Her theme exudes the comfort that we’re never alone. “Everything that we do every single day, we’ve got this angel watching over us,” she said, pointing to angel statuettes she strung from the rotunda ceiling. Achieving the right balance between how the angels “interacted” with the tree took her a few takes to nail down.
- Visitors can check out nearly 50 other designer-inspired trees of a variety of themes. The wreath and gingerbread displays are back, too.
- You can stroll the sights and sounds of Festival of Trees every day through Sunday, Nov. 20, 2022 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. It’s located inside the Orlando Museum of Art.