As Tommy Bourgeois, designer of the Dallas Arboretum’s “The 12 Days of Christmas,” inspects the jewel box-like gazebos that make up the exhibition, he is pleased.
“Honestly, for 10 years, I think it’s doing really, really well. This thing takes a battering from weather and the physical use of it doing what it does. It’s in remarkable shape for the small amount of major maintenance we’ve done,” Bourgeois said.
Since the 2014 holiday season, 12 25-foot-tall glittering gazebos filled with life-sized mannequins, animals, and scenery depicting vignettes from the titular Christmas carol have dotted the garden. The concept was the vision of Phyllis and Tom McCasland, long-time supporters of the Arboretum. Mary Brinegar, the Arboretum’s now retired president and CEO, approached Bourgeois, a set and costume designer at The Dallas Opera, to create the intricate exhibition.
“Coming up as a kid, I wanted to do window dressings for department stores,’ Bourgeois said. “So, this was the ultimate window dressing dream come true.”
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Bourgeois worked for two years with Dallas Stage Scenery to create the gazebos. He remembers when the Arboretum staff first saw a nearly completed gazebo.
“They were kind of gobsmacked. ‘Oh, they are really big!’” Bourgeois remembered. “It was a day when everyone realized what it was going to be become.”
The Scene
What it has become is a beloved holiday tradition that takes months to make look flawlessly magical. Every year, installation of the gazebos begins in early August. Off-duty firemen toil in the Texas summer heat to set up the exhibition. More than a decade ago, Bourgeois and the project’s team visited the garden multiple times and used paper patterns to determine where the gazebos would best fit into the garden’s landscape. Each location has footings and the necessary electrical work to power the exhibition’s swans a-swimming and maids a-milking.
Throughout the last decade, the gazebos filled with 28 hand-carved animals and 55 mannequins dressed in elaborate costumes have needed maintenance. As he looked the “Seven Swans A-Swimming” gazebo, Bourgeois notes the touch-ups.
“Every year it gets new snow in it and new batting usually on the snow banks. We’ve touched up the birds in this one, straightened the icicles. It just depends on if beads break, and it is pretty consistent throughout all of them,” Bourgeois said. “There are a lot of parts and pieces. A lot.”
The gazebo’s exteriors are covered in thousands of rhinestones, and some columns have been recently re-glittered. Fading is a major issue. In “Six Geese A-Laying,” the sunlight transforms the small red birds.
“In about a year, they will be faded out to a light pink,” Bourgeois said.
The staff has had a few run-ins with White Rock Lake’s natural inhabitants, curious about the holiday exhibition.
“There’s a possum or two that have taken up home under a couple of them,” Bourgeois said. “A sparrow got in Day 9, I think. They had to get it out. It took a while for it to find its way out. That’s about it. The bugs can be atrocious because it starts in August, and it is so hot. The firemen have to use tweezers to pull bugs out of the snow.”
Throughout every holiday season, Bourgeois appreciates the magic of the exhibition during the day and night.
“In the daytime, it sort of tells a story looking in and at night, it tells a story looking out,” Bourgeois said. “It’s an amazing thing that this even exists in an outdoor garden. Truly.”
Since the debut of “The 12 Days of Christmas,” the Holiday at the Arboretum now includes the Pauline and Austin Neuhoff Family Christmas Village and a rotating series of holiday exhibitions in the DeGolyer House. This year, the DeGolyer House exhibition is curated by Michael Hamilton and features a Della Robbia Holiday theme, blending the artistic legacy of Luca Della Robbia’s terracotta sculptures with handcrafted holiday decorations inspired by Colonial Williamsburg.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, “The 12 Days of Christmas,” along with other elements of Holiday at the Arboretum, proved to be a resilient holiday tradition.
“It was one of the only things people could do because it was outside,” Bourgeois said. “Bravo to the Arboretum for keeping it up and doing it and helping people through hard times.”
Bourgeois often talks to visitors and hears about their holidays memories made at “The 12 Days of Christmas.”
“For most people, it’s become such a great tradition for their families. For kids, some of them have been coming their whole life,” Bourgeois said. “I think it’s great. I hope it keeps going.”
Learn more: Dallas Arboretum
