PORTLAND, Maine — Tinsel, marshmallows, strings of plastic popcorn, sparkling glass globes and one plush yeti doll all found their way onto manufactured Christmas evergreens standing inside Arcadia Bar on Congress Street Sunday night as teams battled it out to reign supreme as the best holiday tree decorators of the year.
“Who will win the best tree of twenty-twenty-tree,” bar co-owner Dave Aceto said, relishing the pun.
The winning team walked away with a $100 gift card to Aceto’s video game and pinball-themed watering hole. The charity-based event also raised about $500 for the Midcoast Humane Society.
Clockwise from left: Kathryn Kellogg (right) puts garland on a Christmas tree at Arcadia Bar in Portland, with teammates Brandon Forcier and Alyssa Forcier. Jam Julian (top right) hangs a candy cane on a Christmas tree. AP Nuri (bottom right) helps decorate a Christmas tree. The tree-decorating contest raised money for the Midcoast Humane Society. Credit: Troy R. Bennett / BDN
Aceto hopes his first-ever tree-decorating contest would be the start of a new, annual Portland holiday tradition.
“I like decorating trees — and I like pitting people against each other at the holidays,” he said, still joking. “It’s the true spirit of the season.”
Teams were allowed to bring one box of their own decorations to spruce up an assigned, charm-deficient, plastic-and-metal tree which would make Charlie Brown’s famously bedraggled evergreen seem elegant by comparison. Teams then competed in a series of pinball and skeeball challenges which allowed them to take advantage of a table full of brand new, merry-and-bright decorations for their Christmas creations.
Other contests, including a guess-what-beer-this-is taste competition, gave teams the right to steal decorations from competitor’s trees.
“That was Einbecker winter-bock,” beer-tasting winner AP Nuri said. “I’d know that beer anywhere.”
Team Ho-Ho Holy Night went with a tiny Solo cup and red bird theme on their tree. The whole affair was then topped by an exuberant, hand-cut, pleated paper snowflake.
Another tree had a star topper which projected Christmas images on the ceiling.
Loungey Christmas tunes played over the bar’s sound system, blending with the various blips, beeps and squawks emanating from the dozens of electronic games lining the walls. Aceto narrated the contest like a wedding DJ calling for the father-daughter dance, interviewing the contestants and egging them on.
When the decorating was finished, bar patrons were each issued poker chips and instructed to vote for their favorite tree by dropping chips in beer glasses next to each one.
The winner was a s’mores-themed tree festooned with dozens of hand-painted marshmallows, graham crackers and chocolate bars. Each fluffy sugar cube had an individual design drawn on it. Some were marked with snowflakes, others had Christmas stockings, candy canes and Santas. One even had a menorah.
“It’s ironic,” team member Molly Mercier said. “I’m hypoglycemic and had to sit down and eat something halfway through decorating it.”
Mercier’s team almost didn’t find the supplies they needed to complete their creation.
“We walked all over Costco looking for marshmallows,” team member Dustin Bok said. “They didn’t have any. We had to go to Walmart.”
Mercier already has ideas for next year’s competition tree. However, she wasn’t ready to reveal her thoughts just yet. For now, Mercier said it was enough to bask in the winning, green-and-red glow of victory, knowing her team had done something to make Christmas a little better for the animals at the Midcoast Humane Society.
“This was a combination of a good idea and a great arts-and-crafts project,” Bonk said.
