FA Represents MA at the 100th National Christmas Tree Lighting

Every year, schools and their students from around the country are invited to decorate trees representing their respective states with ornaments that celebrate some of the unique features and customs of their regions. This effort is part of the annual National Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony and celebration (see attached press release) held at President’s Park in Washington, DC. This year, Falmouth Academy students were chosen to create the ornaments adorning the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ tree.

 

“We are proud to represent Massachusetts at this year's ceremony and display,” said Matthew Green, Falmouth Academy’s Head of School. “The project invited us to reflect on how to best represent our state’s rich history and joyfully celebrate the many cultural backgrounds and religious traditions of its people, something we as an independent, secular school value.”

 

Working with arts faculty members Seth Rainville, Lucy Nelson, and Susan Moffat, students created unique designs that represent some quintessential aspects of life in the bay state—pencil drawings of chickadees, colorful pastels of the Boston skyline and the State House, renderings of marine life, photos of a cranberry harvest, a Duxbury lighthouse, and Vineyard sound, and a map of Cape Cod, just to name a few. Out of the 72 submitted, the faculty chose 18 images created using a variety of media to represent the state. The ornaments will adorn Falmouth Academy’s annual “hat and mitten tree” where students will hang donations of warm socks, hats, and mittens for the Falmouth Service Center.

 

Falmouth Academy is grateful to all the students who submitted designs and to the following students, who hail from various towns throughout southeastern Massachusetts and represent various grades, whose art will be on display: David Aubrey ’26 (Falmouth), Yaz Aubrey ’25 (Falmouth), Abigail Brown ’26 (Falmouth), Annabelle Bush ’26 (Falmouth), Ronan Cazeault ’26 (Marstons Mills), Alexandro Yusuf De Chiaro ’28 (Vineyard Haven), Meg Dooley ’25 (Waquoit), Max Donovan ’26 (Falmouth), Adele Francis ’23 (Falmouth), Charlotte Galvam ’27 (Plymouth), Christian Hanoian ’24 (Falmouth), Apex Heywood ’25 (Falmouth), Ian Homa ’26 (Centerville),  Elizabeth Jazo ’26 (Falmouth), Anne Jeffrey ’25 (Wood Hole), Daisy Kinsley Hancock ’23 (Falmouth/Nantucket), Filipe LaRhette ’26 (Osterville), Emily Lazarus ’24 (Plymouth), Joe Legutko ’26 (Falmouth), Robby Lender ’25 (Plymouth), Sadie Leveque ’23 (Woods Hole), Eva Muldoon ’25 (Rochester) and Henry Redfield (Vineyard Haven).  

View the National Christmas Tree and the 58 trees’ ornaments in person from December 2 through January 1, 2023, or online at the President’s Park Facebook page for photos of the ornaments!