When it comes to designer Christmas trees, the folks at Baltimore's Fandango Productions know no bounds, which is why the creations they donate to the annual Festival of Trees are usually show-stoppers.
But for the 2009 festival, set for this weekend at the state fairgrounds in Timonium, the creative minds at Fandango surprised everyone. They went traditional, tastefully placing an assortment of red and gold ornaments on a tree that would be right at home in even the most conservative household. They call their tree "Fandango Goes Traditional (For a Change)."
"Yeah, that was my idea," says Alan Randall, who has spearheaded the company's tree-design team for 10 years now. "We had never done that before, so I figured, you know, let's do it."
Not to worry, however. Fandango hasn't gone all staid and decorous all of a sudden. Its five-tree "grove" at the festival also includes " Snoopy Goes Christmas," featuring a wooden doghouse and a scraggly Norfolk Island pine tree, from which a single red ball hangs; "Do You Believe In Elves?" a tribute to those cookie-baking Keebler elves, complete with a tray of chocolate-chip cookies; and the tumultuously colorful "We Wish You an Abstract Christmas," a tree mounted on a backboard splotched with paint, as though it has just gone a couple of rounds with Jackson Pollock.
