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Festival of Trees: Magic of the season with Santa & Piney

Rotary fundraiser offers more than decorated Christmas trees

By Sue Vorenberg
Published: November 30, 2014, 12:00am

Two-year-old Ruby Bardzik peered nervously from her mom’s lap across the five foot divide of carpet that lay between her and the large bearded man, dressed in festive red and white.

The man, who identified himself only as Santa (“spelled S-A-N-T-A,” as he informed a nearby reporter), gave a gentle smile to the youngster, trying to calm her.

“What do you want for Christmas?” he asked Ruby, who promptly buried her face in the embrace of her mother, Lisa Bardzik.

After a little prodding, though, she whispered a reply.

“A book?” she asked.

Traffic was slow for the Merry Old Elf (The Columbian has it on good authority that this is Santa’s street name) as the Vancouver Rotary Festival of Trees ramped up on Saturday morning. Later in the day, the line of children and pets wanting to visit with him grew long.

But at 11 a.m., Santa was all Ruby’s.

Emboldened, the child slid off her mother’s lap and gingerly approached him, only running back when he tried to offer her a candy cane.

“This is her first time meeting Santa,” Lisa Bardzik said with a warm smile. “It’s so cute.”

By the time her 5-year-old sister, Ella, and father, Paul Bardzik, joined the pair, Ruby decided she was willing to pose on Santa’s lap for a picture.

And Ella, being older and wiser, already knew exactly what she wanted to ask him for.

“A Tiana dress!” Ella said of the character from Disney’s “The Princess and the Frog.”

It was the first time the family, who live in Vancouver, had visited the Festival of Trees, they said. And there was a lot more to the event — which includes a tree raffle, holiday market, singing and other entertainment — than they thought.

“This is exciting,” Paul Bardzik said. “There’s a lot of stuff down here. I just learned about it this weekend.”

Robert Blake and his family also decided to visit the event for the first time this year.

Blake, his wife Shelli, daughter Cashé, 18, son Trevon, 7, and their 7-month-old dog, Peewee, all waited in line to pose with Santa.

“So far this is cool,” Shelly Blake said. “It’s nice to do something like this as a family that doesn’t cost a lot.”

Of the group, Peewee the Chihuahua seemed most enamoured with Santa, pawing his chest and trying to give him a friendly lick through his long gray beard.

“You’re so little!” Santa said with a laugh as the family crowded around.

Of course, Santa wasn’t the only somewhat mysterious visitor to the festival, in its 19th year, which is an annual fundraiser that helps Rotary fund scholarships and community projects.

Another favorite stood by the door at the Hilton Vancouver Washington and greeted — and occasionally mystified — visitors to the event, which continues through 4 p.m. today.

“Hi! I’m Piney the Talking Tree,” said the tall, star-covered and brightly decorated creature standing sentinel at the festival gateway. “All my cousins are down the hall. You should say hi to them.”

With no visible speaker or camera, Ella and Ruby Bardzik found Piney to be suspicious, but friendly.

“I said Merry Christmas to him,” Ella said proudly.

But she added that she wasn’t sure the creature was truly alive or if there was a person somehow pretending to be him.

“How does it talk?” she asked. “It has a speaker?”

Prodded to speculate about how Piney saw the people visiting him, Ella had another answer.

“It has eyes in the top of its head,” she said.

Piney remained unfazed by the disbelief in his woody sentience.

“How do I look? Do I look good? I’m decorated very nicely,” he told the girls.

After pondering a moment, 6-year-old Conner Ross approached and decided to grill Piney a bit further.

“Where are you?” he asked.

“I’m right here,” Piney said. “I’m everywhere. Haven’t you seen a talking tree before?”

Conner shrugged, then pulled out a small Teddy bear, which he waved at Piney.

“My Teddy bear says hi,” Conner said with a grin.

“Hi Teddy!” Piney said happily.

Asked if he was jealous that Piney got more visitors over the morning, Santa said no.

“We’re friends,” Santa said. “We’ve got a conference call later, actually, to determine who’s been naughty and who’s been nice.”

Piney confirmed that the conference call would happen later that evening.

“Absolutely,” Piney said, before greeting a new onslaught of young visitors.

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