PITTSFIELD, Mass. - The Festival of Trees is back at the Berkshire Museum for the first time since 2019.

The museum's membership and development manager William Demick said it’s only fitting to have it as the museum celebrates its 120^th anniversary. 

“We said to ourselves, 'Okay, well, you know, if we're celebrating the museum's history, Festival of Trees is a huge part of that kind of recent history of the museum, so why not bring it back this year?'" Demick said.

This year marks the 39^th Festival of Trees and the theme is “Nostalgia.” The trees are all sponsored and uniquely decorated by local businesses, nonprofits, schools and groups with help from museum staff.

“We try to arrange the trees in such a way that kind of goes with the spaces but also allows them to complement each other," Demick said. "The trees are all brought in over the course of three days and people come in and they set them up. We assist when we can with the decorations. It's really it kind of livens up the atmosphere in the museum too.”

Demick said the annual fundraiser is all about getting the community involved.

“It started, again about 40 years ago, and it was it was just a way to engage the community," Demick said. "To let people celebrate the holidays and even if it's not necessarily celebrating a specific holiday, it's celebrating this time of year with the tree as a canvas for people to express themselves.”

Demick said for the museum, organizing dozens of trees is a labor of love their staff is happy to have back this holiday season.

“It's something that we love doing for the community to be able to work with our community partners on something that is just so very apparently creative," Demick said. "You know, it's, there's nothing there's nothing really behind the scenes or anything here. It's just, it is beautiful, you know, really works of art. And it's just a ton of fun.”

The Festival of Trees will be on display at the museum until Jan. 7.