Community Corner

Must See: Storybook Christmas Trees Make a Magic Exhibit

Delight your family with this festive exhibit in a 19th-century mansion and read one of the books together!

This museum in a historic, grand estate on Pelham Bay is worth visiting any time but it's especially sumptuous at Christmas.

And this year the Storybook Christmas tree exhibit features decorations inspired by contemporary children's Christmas books, the kind worth reading and re-reading as an annual tradition. Many kids will already know the series about Olive the pig, or the song about the 12 days of Christmas. 

  • The Smallest Gift of Christmas by Peter H. Reynolds; Tree design by Bronx Council on the Arts
  • Auntie Claus by Elsie Primavera; Tree design by interior designers Sarah Sarna & Tina Ramchandani from Franklin Eighth
  • The 12 Days of Christmas by Robert Sabuda; Tree design by set designer Joe Burck
  • Olivia Helps with Christmas by Ian Falconer; Tree design by artists Judy Moonelis and Jeff Mongrain
  • Christmas Tree for Pyn by Olivier Dunrea; Tree design by Bronx Parks 125
  • The Mitten by Jan Brett; Tree design by Jane Bell
  • Fancy Nancy by Jane O'Connor; Tree design by Bartow-Pell docents Linda Sacewicz and Christine Williams
  • Olive the Other Reindeer by Vivian Walsh; Tree design by The JFM Group LLC

Many of the Storybook Christmas Tree designers are from Westchester and New York City:

  • New York City artists Judy Moonelis and Jeff Mongrain. Moonelis and Mongrain are represented in shows around the world and in collections at the Smithsonian, Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts and NYC’s Museum of Arts and Design, to name only a few.
  • City Island artist and designer Joe Burck 
  • Dart Westphal and Ellen Pollan from Bronx Parks 125, the organization formed to lead the celebration Bronx Parks’ 125th  anniversary
  • Tina Ramchandani and Sarah Sarna from Manhattanbased Franklin Eighth
  • Jane Bell from Scarsdale’s Jane Bell Interior Design
  • Sharon Knight and Lydia Clark from the Bronx Council on the Arts 
  • Nancy Davis and Joan Morgan from Pelham’s The JFM Group 
Storybook Christmas trees at Bartow-Pell Mansion Museum are on display now through Jan. 5. While you're there, stop in the Bartow-Pell holiday shop—stocked, once again, with the help of Kensington Paper in Bronxville.

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