Garden offers global holiday festivities

By Juliette Coulter

Holiday at the Arboretum, presented by Reliant, has opened to the community with something for everyone to get into the holiday spirit, now through December 31. In addition to the new 50-foot-tall Dazzling Musical Tree, The 12 Days of Christmas life-size gazebos and the European-inspired Christmas Village, the DeGolyer House features The Artistry of the Nativity. Each day from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and every Monday-Wednesday evening from 6-8 p.m., the community is invited to visit the historic DeGolyer House on the Arboretum property.

The Artistry of the Nativity collection features hundreds of crèches representing a variety of cultures from around the world. In addition to the Ray Harrington and the Joe Christian collections, which the Arboretum owns, the display includes three special crèches worth noting: one from the famous costume set designer Peter Hall, an ANRI Bernardi nativity set and a handmade paper-mâché set created by intellectually disabled children from India.

Peter Hall’s Crèches

A well-known costume designer, Peter Hall has created the figures in his crèche in the same fashion as the 18th century Italians for famous Italian families and churches. They start with a wire frame wrapped with fabric secured with glue and twine. The figures are sculpted out of paper-mâché. Because Hall had access to costumes and beautiful fabrics and accessories, he used these to create unique costumes for his crèche figures. 

A gifted painter, Hall painted elaborate and expressionist paintings of his figures. Following the guides of old Neapolitan Crèches, he created all the accessories for the figures and used cardboard to create the creche roof, walls, fountains and columns. This crèche is on loan from Tommy Bourgeois and can be seen in the formal dining room.

 Ulrich Bernardi’s 

ANRI Nativity

ANRI Bernardi nativities are collected worldwide by many who like the simplistic, mostly wooden sets and figurines with innocent expressions. ANRI nativities are the inspiration and creation of Ulrich Bernardi, who was known for designing religious figures and cherubs. When he attended art school, he held an apprenticeship where he discovered his passion for nativity carving. Bernardi also learned how to carve from his grandfather, an altar builder, and his grandmother, who carved wooden ornaments. This crèche is on display in the formal living room.

 Pathways India Nativity Set

Created by intellectually disabled children in India, this crèche is handcrafted from paper-mâché. These children, many of whom are orphans, are part of the Pathways India nonprofit that was started in 1975 to provide comprehensive care and educational opportunities for them on a 65-acre farm. Pathways co-founder Chandra Prasad created the beautiful design that the children of all abilities help fashion and sell, so that the group can become self-sustaining. The paper-mâché crèche can been seen in the glass case in the DeGolyer House outside the library. 

For the past two decades, designer Michael Hamilton has created a vision for the décor, and he has playfully decorated the Christmas trees with these holiday favorites:

“Angels We Have Heard on High”/Library: The library has a 15-foot-tall tree, and there’s a nine-foot gold tinsel tree within the 15-foot tree. It’s lit with amber light to give a soft glow to all the angels.

“Joy to the World”/Formal Living Room: This green tree has embellishments of gold ribbon and gold ornaments with a top bursting with gold swag and an angel.

“We Three Kings”/Formal Dining Room: Red is the theme of this tree with red ribbons and colorful red ornaments giving it a formal and regal quality fit for a king.

“I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas”/Kitchen Dining Room: This white Christmas tree has gold accents throughout, giving it a magical and dreamy feel.

“Ava Maria”/Formal Sitting Room: In Mrs. Nell DeGolyer’s bedroom, the feminine-themed tree is covered with pink flower ornaments, along with pink, gold and purple-inspired ornaments.

“Come Let Us Adore Him”/Master Bedroom: As a nod to the nativity family, this tree features the holy family, wise men and characters as large ornaments.

Timed tickets, which range from $10-$25, are required for entry for the garden, so guests are encouraged to reserve preferred dates early. 

For more information, visit dallasarboretum.org.

In addition to Reliant as the presenting sponsor, other sponsors include Amazon, Century Glass, Gray Reed, GFF Architects, Move Star, Southwest Data Systems and United Healthcare.

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