SPRINGFIELD – It’s a new location, and a new plan for display and entertainment as the Festival of Trees moves from its former home at Tower Square to the first-floor Convention Center of the MassMutual Center this holiday season.

But as always, the mission remains the same for the 18th edition of the popular fundraiser – to support the work and mission of the Springfield Boys & Girls Club.

Hours at the new location are Wed. 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Thurs. 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., Fri. and Sat. 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Sun. 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Festival admission is $5 adults, $4 seniors and free for children 12 years of age and younger.

“We are reinvented this year. We are in about twice the space – it’s a whole new way of looking at our event,” said Stacy Magiera, who has served as chair of the Festival for the past nine years. “The Mass Mutual Center has absolutely rolled out the red carpet [for us] and made the logistics of the event easier than ever.”

Magiera said the 18,000 square feet of space in the Convention Center has given her and her committee the opportunity to completely re-imagine how the Festival’s dozens of donated trees will appear to visitors.

“We’ve designed the space in such a way to give it a ‘forest’ feeling,” she said. “People will be meandering around in a forest, we’ve found a way to make it more intimate” than the rows in the Festival’s traditional layout. The larger space has also provided the opportunity to bring the Festival’s choruses, singing goups and other entertainment right into the heart of the event with a stage and seating for 200.

“It used to be in the Food Court [at Tower Square],” Magiera said. “It won’t feel separated anymore.”

As always, Santa will have his own nook within the Festival where children can come and share their holiday wishes on the weekends, she added.

And though the space is larger, Magiera said she and her committee chose to keep the number of trees to 140 for their initial year at the MassMutual Center because “We want to give people the best view of the trees.” She added visitors could purchase raffle tickets to take a chance on winning their favorite tree–or trees–at a cost of $10 for 25 tickets.

“The trees are donated by families, Key Clubs and businesses [and] people can choose how they want to decorate them. Some people just use decorations, others put gift cards on them, people have put weekend getaways on them, and the winner [of each tree] gets everything on the tree and under the tree,” Magiera said. “Last year someone was very creative and had a kayak tree, another very creative one was a wine tree, which had over 100 bottles of wine on it. “

For example, she said this year her husband’s office, Agawam Crossing Dental, would be continuing their tradition of providing a tree to the Festival by donating a tree in memory of a former employee who was “close to our hearts.

“The theme is Marilyn Monroe’s “Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend,” she said, adding, “A good number of our trees are donated in memory of someone.”

Magiera said managing the logistics of recreating the festival in a new space was something that she couldn’t have accomplished so easily without the support of the donors, the MassMutual Center, her committee and the volunteers who keep the Festival running smoothly every year.

“I’ve developed incredible friendships with all of those donors, sponsors and audience [over the years], not to mention the hundreds of volunteers it takes to run the event, and who give their time as well,” Magiera added.

As she was gearing up for the Festival’s 2018 season and the estimated 15,000 annual visitors, Magiera told Reminder Publishing she’s stayed at the helm for so many years both to make sure the Festival keeps running smoothly – “There’s a lot to teach someone else about the logistics, the donors, and the volunteers,”– and the knowledge that all the work she and her committee do is benefitting the children who find support and a second home at the Boys & Girls Club.