Eyes Light Up at Christmas Tree Decor
Interior designers and florists looked to the heavens, romance, Venice and the past for Christmas tree themes for the South County Cancer League’s annual Noel d’Elegance dinner dance at the Ritz-Carlton on Friday night.
Cheryl Moore and Wy Bauman, co-chairmen of the third annual benefit, combined a drawing for the six trees, a silent auction and a three-item live auction to raise $40,000 at the black-tie affair.
The 350 guests carefully studied the trees during the social hour. Opportunity tickets were bought and placed into boxes beneath their favorites.
Participating county-area interior designers included Teri Christie, Town Center Interiors; Renee Saunders, Saunders Interiors; Martha Gresham and Jon Jahr, Martha Gresham Interior Design Showrooms, and Bonnie Brown. Florists participating were William Merrill, Paul Ecke and Tracy Arenas of the Black Iris and Shirley Dunham of Dunham’s Capistrano Beach Florist.
Coincidentally, three of the six tree winners, Debora Hintz, Elaine Mathes and Cathy Fallon, found themselves seated at the table of their tree’s decorator. Other winners were Laurie McCarthy, Del Chandler and George Hollowell.
High-Tech Tree
Johnny Johnson, defensive back for the Rams and two-year board member of the Orange County Cancer Society, hoped to win “A Celestial Christmas,” the high-tech tree designed by the Black Iris, but Hintz was the happy winner.
Describing the celestial tree, floral designer Merrill said, “The biggest force for the design came from last summer’s Halley’s Comet.” The clusters of flashing miniature lights, tagged “atom clusters” by the trio, created a shooting star effect. Black moire taffeta and silver lame, twisted together and laid on the branches, depicted the universe. Silver-coated galax leaves placed among the branches accented the 50 white Dendrobium orchids arranged in sprays.
Acrylic tubing containing tiny lights made an effective comet’s trail. The tubing swirled into big loops about the tree and veered into different directions at the top.
The idea of their “Dr. Zhivago” theme came to Gresham and Jahr on a trip to an interior design mart in Dallas last January. There, they found dolls, regally dressed in long white fur-trimmed coats and hats, which would enhance the winter scene they had wanted to portray. McCarthy won the tree.
Because she loves “anything Italian,” she said, Brown applied her knowledge of Italian architectural design to her “Venetian Christmas” tree. “I did it the same way I would a room,” she said of the tree won by Hollowell.
Harmony of Colors
Applying concepts of texture, line, harmony of colors and overscaling some of the ornaments, Brown decorated her tree using the rich color palette of 17th- and 18th-Century tapestries (umber, violet and teal.) The ornaments, many the size of small beach balls, were custom-painted with Old World colors. Artificial birds “carried” matching ribbon in their beaks. Realistic clusters of grapes formed a path to the tree top, which culminated in a cornucopia of gold branches, ribbons, ornaments and an old-world Venetian angel.
Christie, wearing a white ruffled gown and her long blond curls pulled to one side, was a contrast to the wildlife theme she selected. Won by Kathy Fallon, the “Festive Pheasant Tree” featured a prominent display of pheasants (plastic forms covered with pheasant feathers.)
“I wanted a fireside tree--something woodsy that would appeal to the male,” she said. “I pictured it in a home that has lots of wood and warm tones.”
A porcelain angel looked down on “Ann’s Delight,” a heavy Victorian design by Saunders. Laden with pearl-encrusted ornaments, satin, lace and clear ornaments, with miniature peach-silk roses placed inside, it was geared to romantics.
Saunders, a member of the Victorian Society in London, said she was interested in starting a chapter in Southern California with people who share her love of Victorian artifacts “and the whole Restoration Era.”
A bright red and white color scheme brought attention to “An Old-Fashioned Christmas Tree,” created by Dunham. The white-flocked ponderosa with red candles, stockings and bows held bears of various sizes. Larry and Elaine Mathes won the tree.
A Puppy Named Noel
Finance committee member Bill Morland conducted the auction after dinner.
Auction winners included Pamela and Robert Schwartz, who went home with a cocker spaniel puppy, promptly named “Noel” by table companions. Betsy Woodhouse left in a new fox-fur jacket. A Mammoth ski trip was won by Jack and Janie Flammer.
Attending the event was Jacquie Horan, executive director of the Orange County Unit of the American Cancer Society.
“Forty percent of all the money that comes in (for ACS) goes into national research,” she said. “It’s exciting, because almost $1 million is coming back to us for research projects at UCI.”
A red carpet was rolled out and a brass quartet serenaded nearly 500 guests arriving at the Santa Ana Assistance League center Saturday night.
It was the league’s fifth annual “Christmas Tree Celebration,” and to make way for the festivities, clothes had been moved out of the league’s Thrift Shop and replaced with tables, chairs and a dance floor.
Nancy Weir and Linda Kelly, food chairmen, set up a table with member-made appetizers in a gift shop created for the event, a convenient place for guests to pause and Christmas shop.
The Assisteens, daughters and granddaughters of auxiliary members, served hors d’oeuvres. The chilly night air added the right winter touch to view the seven elaborately decorated Christmas trees housed in the league’s adjoining Modjeska chapter house.
Decorations chairman Ann Beresford took over duties for Maureen Layton, chairman of the event, who was unable to attend.
Beds for YWCA
League President Phyllis Klingaman spoke proudly of the league’s recent contribution that paid for the north wing of the Orange County YWCA’s hotel. “The $65,000 we donated this year furnished 12 beds for needy women in the north wing,” she said.
The party’s themed Christmas trees were provided by businesses and individuals.
Sandy Miller coordinated the tree designers, among them florist Mark Cujak.
Cujak’s tree, bought by KIK-FM, carried out the Western theme, employing braided raffia to resemble rope, gingham bows and horse ornaments made from wine corks. A likeness of country singer Dolly Parton was perched on top of the tree. Linen and china shop owner Donna Andert used cut-out linens to wrap a lifelike doll in a manger and also utilized doilies for angel ornaments.
Andert’s tree was bought by Charles Boniols of Model Glass, who was seen looking at more than glass (a diamond bracelet) in a room where fine jewelry was being sold.
League members Nadine Hall and Sharlene Rauch made the arrangements for the special one-day jewelry sale.
According to member Jackie Powell, the event raised more than $30,000.
The Christmas tree party professionals may well be the Mother Goose Guild of Childrens Hospital of Orange County.
The Fullerton-based guild, formed in 1962 when the hospital was still on the drawing board, has employed a tree theme for its annual fund-raiser since it was founded.
On Sunday, 650 guests, many of them entire families, attended the guild’s 25th-anniversary brunch--”Silver Reflections”--at the Anaheim Hilton.
According to guild President Carol Ojers, $18,000 was netted for the hospital and its outpatient clinic.
Carolers from Chapman College entertained as opportunity tickets were bought for 13 trees, each theme-decorated by members.
“It really has gone smoothly,” said brunch chairman Peggy Beauchamp. She said tree decorating had begun as early as Saturday morning.
Service Award
Two custom wreaths and a jeweled Christmas pin designed by Lloyd Ojers were also part of the drawing bounty.
During the event, Ojers received the hospital’s distinguished service award for 10 years of gift donations. Emcee Vick Knight drew raffle tickets from boxes held by each of the tree’s decorators.
Helen Wardner, coordinator of the CHOC Guilds, said the Mother Goose Guild supplies the CHOCO Bear (the hospital’s logo) pillows given to every patient. Some 92,000 pillows have been given out to patients over the years.
