Georgetown Jingle 2013

Since 2006, local designers have worked together to produce the Georgetown Jingle, an event which auctions off Christmas trees created by local designers to raise money for the Pediatric Hematology, Oncology, Blood and Marrow Transplantation Program at Georgetown University Hospital. The 2013 Georgetown Jingle trees have been on display at the Four Seasons in Georgetown since November 27, and last night they were sold at an auction during the 2013 Georgetown Jingle Gala event.

Another amazing tree by Corcoran Students Whitney Osterhout + Ramzah Khan

I learned of the Georgetown Jingle through the student ASID chapter at the Corcoran last year. Corcoran students participate in the Jingle by building a tree, and in the past the student tree has been extremely popular. I follow the Jingle on facebook and saw last week that they needed volunteers to help out with some last minute stuff over the weekend. Now that classes are over and I actually have time to do things at my leisure on the weekends, I sent an email volunteering to help out. Selfishly, I also wanted to head over to Georgetown and check out the trees.

Saturday I spent a couple hours stuffing gift bags for the event, along with a bunch of other volunteers from Junior League of Washington and a sorority at GW...kind of awkward that I was the only person to show up unaffiliated, but whatever, I had a good time. After I was done volunteering, I headed over to the lobby of the Four Seasons and checked out the trees.

Some designers did traditional trees, basically decorating regular green artificial trees with unusual ornaments. Others like to think outside of the box a little and reinterpret the traditional Christmas tree. My favorites trees were those that weren't constructed like a traditional artificial tree, which is also the type of thing the Corcoran students do each year.

I snapped some pictures of my favorites with my iPhone and tried to get the detail since I hadn't seen a ton of pictures of them online. Hopefully one day I'll get to participate in the event!

Darlene Molnar's tree was built from cones of paper and lit from the inside. It's inspired by the chocolate truffles that her partner vendor makes and sells in their restaurant. We can call this little area the Corcoran floor since Darlene is a Corcoran alum and professor.

I really appreciated the simplicity of Michael Roberson's design, but the coolest part about it is that it's constructed of your generic, builder-grade, brass chandelier.

Camille Saum, who has done the Jingle previously and had a room in the 2013 DC Design House, did a traditional tree packed with color and texture. It was beautifully done, but I scoffed at it a little because was a traditional tree. And then I got closer to it. I've seen a lot of...interesting..DIY can-related Christmas decorations (Mom - Tuna can angel? Diehl family - crushed can santa care of Pack 'O Fun magazine?), but these ornaments made from soda cans were amazing. Seriously, I want her to sell them, unattached from the tree.

Bill Enright, a floral event designer, created this silvery "Gatsby" tree, and I found myself completely drawn to it. I love the way the light plays on the silver and peeks out through the white feathers. This is also a great demonstration that all artificial trees are not created equal. Check out the number of lights on this tree. Most artificial trees have about half as many lights, and this tree would look very different if that were the case. 

I wish I had been able to snap a full picture of Elizabeth Krial's tree, but there was a group of people sitting by it so I didn't want to be obtrusive. Instead I tried to get a close up of the tree-topper made of book pages. We've seen a lot of things made out of rolled book pages lately, but I definitely haven't seen that trend in this form. 

If you want to see larger pictures and full descriptions of each tree, check out the Georgetown Jingle feature on DC by Design.