Main Street Vancouver has gone tree crazy. As one of Vancouver’s most eclectic and vibrant shopping districts it is not surprising that they have launched a colourful new holiday tradition called “Get Your Tree On.” Forty merchants along Main Street have joined forces to decorate Christmas trees and are inviting shoppers to vote on their favourite and enter into a draw for one of two amazing gift baskets. Each store has contributed either a gift certificate or product from their store towards the gift baskets, making each basket worth just over $1000…definitely making it worth while to head over to Main Street this week and to vote for your favourite tree.

Shoppers can vote either online at www.shopmain.ca or at a ballot box located at Re-Entry Espresso (4363 Main). Voting will be open until December 12th at 12 noon. Flyers with a list of all the tree sites, and a ballot, are available at each of the participating stores. The draw will be held at 2pm on December 12th at Once a Huckleberry Bush (4387 Main Street) along with a performance by the Vancouver Children’s Choir.

There will also be food boxes in each of the participating stores collecting donations for the food banks at St. Michael’s Church on Broadway.

Each tree is quite different and appears to reflect the personality of the store along with its owners. Bodacious (shown above) has showcased a stunning green “plus size” gown as their tree and and in similar fashion, Solid Threads (3851 Main Street) has decorated a mannequin in a vintage green dress as their entry.

Echo Unique Resale (3553 Main Street) has gone a very different route and had children (and some adults) draw pictures of trees. The drawings are very sweet and offer a unique approach to this competition.

Down the road, Public Lounge has also enlisted the help of children and had them make tree ornaments out of wine corks to look like reindeer and angels. They were done by children in the after school program at the Mount Pleasant Community Centre.

Vintage trees and ornaments were also popular for many of the store owners. Laura Frederick from Dandelion Emporium used a vintage “tinsel” tree from the 1960’s and decorated it with gold army men ornaments made by local artist Laura Skuse (Exskuse Design). The tree is standing on the Branch Table by designer Harry Allen. Neptoon Records and CDs also used some classic vintage ornaments on their tree and Sellution Vintage Furniture (3206 Main Street) put their unique spin on things by using antique tea cups, broaches, and silver as decorations.

The spirit of giving was also an important theme for some stores. Bohemia Gallery/The Loft decorated their tree with warm mittens, gloves, hats and scarves…all of which will be donated to St. Michael’s church to support families in need. Two of Hearts Clothing (3728 Main Street) had local designers create ornaments for their tree and are all for sale with 100% of the purchase supporting the Adoptive Family Association.

Yummy treats also made their way on to a few trees. Tina Teoli from Miranda’s Hat (3860 Main Street) decorated her tree with candy…and with each purchase shoppers get to grab a piece from the tree to take home. In a slightly different approach, the tree at Life of Riley (3697 Main Street) had dog biscuits attached with red bows.

Artistic expression featured well throughout all of the trees. Barbara from Plush used beautiful green fabric to create her tree while artists from Arts Off Main designed their own decorations to reflect their art being sold in the shop. The tree on display at Body Politic also showcased handmade ornaments by local designers and the tree at Scala was decorated with paper cut outs, all individually created. Kiddo Consignment was also quite clever with their tree…they used white hangers to create the silhouette of a Christmas tree.

Although all the trees were beautifully and thoughtfully decorated, and I am sorry that I couldn’t list them all here, two stand out for me a bit more than the rest. I was pleasantly surprised when I walked into On The Fringe Hair Design and saw that they had used red hair extensions as tinsel and gold hair rollers as ornaments…but even more captivating was the “corset tree” that was on display at Lace Embrace Atelier…a very provocative approach indeed!