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While Manchester’s Trees of Christmas is a seemingly simple annual event that each year tasks both businesses and individuals with decorating a themed Christmas tree for the community to enjoy, it is an event that embodies both community spirit and holiday tradition.

Event organizer Katie West of Manchester Parks and Recreation said the free Christmas tree display will be open Dec. 4 through Dec. 10 at the city’s Ada Wright Center next to Fred Deadman Park.

“I went to it when I was a kid, so it is cool because it came full circle,” West said. “I was a kid and now I am an adult and I am running it.”

West said she has fond memories of viewing the different Christmas trees assembled for the event each year.

“When I went as a kid my mom took me and my brother down there while our father was at work, and we walked around for a little bit and looked at everything,” she said.

Now in her second year of organizing “Trees of Christmas,” West said the process for individuals to participate is simple. Just fill out an application and decorate a Christmas tree to go along with an annual theme. For 2023, the theme is “Christmas at the Movies.”

West said she enjoys picking the theme for the event, and likes to keep it related to the theme for the Manchester Christmas Parade.

With several years under her belt as both a spectator and now the event organizer, West said there are a few trees that stick out in her mind in particular.

“I remember two or three years ago it was toy theme and there was a tree that was shaped like a Lego man,” she said. “That was one of the coolest ones I had ever seen.”

West another memorable tree was done by Reese’s Gene’s Boutique that was a pink Christmas tree decorated with candies.

Area resident Bonnie Davis has been participating in Manchester’s Trees of Christmas for about the last eight or nine years, she said. Decorating a tree each year is something she and her husband Steve enjoy.

“You pretty much spend all year long looking for stuff you are going to put on the tree,” Davis said.

Davis recalled the first time she participated in Manchester’s Trees of Christmas the theme was literature.

“I know the first tree I did, I called it an alphabet tree and people called it an A, B, C tree,” she said. “It had a bunch of letters all over it and I think that year they asked it to be based on a book.”

Davis said when it was announced that the theme for the following year would be music, her husband decided it was time to get involved.

“Up until that time it had been my name on the trees, but when he heard music he whipped his head around and said we will both do this tree if we can pick the song,” she said.

The song of choice was the 1958 Brenda Lee hit “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree.”

The couple decorated a white flocked Christmas tree with 45 RPM records and came over every day the display was open and swing danced to the iconic song for visitors.

“Ever since then I try to put that this tree is by Bonnie and Steve, because at the very least he is unloading and loading the car and doing all kinds of stuff,” Davis said.

West said she believes Manchester’s Trees of Christmas embodies the community holiday spirit to so many people.

“In Manchester we are so small and we are always changing here,” she said. “People are constantly coming in and Manchester is changing every single day, so I think it is kind of important to remember our roots and why we love Manchester and remember a sense of community.”

Hours for the 2023 Manchester Trees of Christmas will be 11 a.m. until 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and Sunday from 1-5 p.m.