Jay County Indiana Trees Festival
Each holiday season, the historic courthouse in Portland fills with decorated Christmas trees, each one dressed by a local organisation and each one competing for the public’s votes. The event’s published name is the Festival of Trees. The title above reverses those two key words, and no published document found for the event uses the reversed order, so the published name is the one used throughout this article. The display is presented by the Jay County Chamber of Commerce, and it stands inside the courthouse during the wider Winterfest season and throughout the holidays. This is not a fairground festival with rides, stages and midway food. It is a display and a vote: organisations decorate, visitors look, and the public chooses a favourite. The written record behind it is narrow but solid, resting on the chamber’s own participation form for the 2024 season and on entries in the public library’s December 2025 calendar.
About the Festival of Trees
The Festival of Trees is a holiday display held inside the Jay County Courthouse in Portland, the seat of Jay County. Decorated trees are entered by organisations from across the county, and for the season the courthouse becomes their gallery. According to the chamber’s participation form, the trees stand on display at the courthouse during Winterfest and throughout the holidays, so this is a season-long presence rather than a single weekend. The judging is done by public vote. Visitors pick the tree they like best, and the tree that gathers the most votes wins one hundred dollars for its organisation’s programmes or projects. The prize is modest, and that modesty is part of the event’s character. The reward flows back into the winning group’s own work in the community, so the contest stays friendly and the stakes are civic rather than commercial. The chamber presents the event, and its participation form is the fullest single document the display has: it sets out who may enter, when trees may be brought in, when decorating must be finished, when voting begins, and when the trees come down again after the new year.
Quick Facts
| Item | Detail |
| Published name | Festival of Trees |
| Presented by | Jay County Chamber of Commerce |
| Venue | Jay County Courthouse, Portland |
| Host town | Portland, the seat of Jay County |
| Setting | Decorated trees displayed inside the courthouse |
| Who may enter | Jay County nonprofits, service organisations, clubs and municipalities |
| Cost of entering | Free, under the chamber’s participation form |
| Prize | One hundred dollars for the winning organisation’s programmes or projects |
| Season | During Winterfest and throughout the holidays |
| Documented seasons | A 2024 participation form and 2025 library calendar entries |
History
An honest history of the Festival of Trees begins with what the documents do and do not say. The layers read for this article contain no founding year, no origin story and no account of a first edition. What exists instead is a clear paper trail for two recent seasons. The earlier of the two is the chamber’s participation form for 2024, which treats the display as an established piece of the local holiday season: it invites entries from across the county, sets a timetable for delivering and decorating trees, opens the voting in late November, and schedules removal of the trees shortly after the new year. The later record is the public library’s December 2025 calendar, which lists a Festival of Trees Kick-Off Celebration alongside a last day for tree voting and a last day to view the display. Those entries confirm that the event returned for the 2025 holiday season in the same basic shape: a launch moment, a viewing period that runs through the holidays, and a vote that closes before the display itself ends. Anything beyond those two seasons would be guesswork. If the display also ran in earlier years, the documents gathered here do not record it, and this article will not invent a longer past for an event whose appeal does not depend on one.
What to Expect
A visit to the Festival of Trees is a walk through a decorated courthouse. The trees line the interior of the Jay County Courthouse in Portland, each one the work of a different local organisation, and the variety on show comes from the entrants themselves, since nonprofits, service organisations, clubs and municipalities are all eligible to take part. The pleasure of the display is in looking closely: comparing how each group has chosen to dress its tree, and settling on the one that earns your vote. Voting is the participatory heart of the event, because the tree with the most votes wins one hundred dollars for the programmes or projects of the organisation behind it. In the 2025 season the library calendar also listed a Festival of Trees Kick-Off Celebration, giving that year a distinct opening moment. Beyond the trees, the vote and that documented celebration, the record describes nothing else, and a visitor should expect nothing else to be promised. There is no documented stage programme, refreshment stand or ceremony in the layers read. What the event offers is simpler and quieter: a courthouse full of Christmas trees, made by the community, judged by the community, standing through the whole holiday season.
Planning Your Visit
Timing matters more than anything else for this display. Under the chamber’s 2024 participation form, the trees were on show at the courthouse during Winterfest and throughout the holidays, and they were removed shortly after the new year, so the viewing window closes early in the season’s turn. The particular dates in that form belonged to 2024: trees could be brought to the courthouse starting Monday, November 4, the last day to decorate was Wednesday, November 20, and voting started on Friday, November 22. The 2025 season kept the same rhythm in outline, with the public library’s December calendar marking a last day for tree voting and a last day to view the Festival of Trees. Each season’s paperwork sets its own deadlines, so anyone planning a trip should look for the current season’s chamber form or calendar listings rather than relying on an earlier year’s dates. On cost, the documents are precise about one thing and silent about another. Entering a tree was free under the 2024 form. Neither document addresses what a casual visitor pays, if anything, to walk in and view the display, and no visitor charge should be assumed in either direction. Expect an indoor, walk-through visit in a working courthouse, and allow enough time to see every tree before choosing where your vote goes.
For a useful comparison, see the Jay County Indiana Jay County Heritage Festival for another county festival.
A Sample Itinerary
A visit to the Festival of Trees needs no elaborate plan, and the documented shape of the event suggests a simple one. Begin with a slow first pass through the whole display, taking in each organisation’s tree without yet deciding anything. Make a second pass to compare the strongest entries side by side, then cast your vote for the tree you most want to support, remembering that the prize money goes toward the winning organisation’s own programmes and projects. If the season includes a kick-off celebration, as the public library’s calendar documented for 2025, the opening is the liveliest moment to attend; in any other week of the holidays, the display stands ready whenever the courthouse season allows viewing. Finish your visit well before the end of the season, because the calendar treats the last day to view as a firm closing point and the trees come down shortly after the new year. For entrants rather than visitors, the shape of the season runs the other way: under the 2024 form, trees arrived from early November, decorating closed later that month, and the entered tree then stood through the holidays while the votes came in.
How It Compares
The Festival of Trees sits inside a larger celebration without being the same thing as it. Winterfest is the wider Portland holiday celebration, and the chamber’s form places the tree display at the courthouse during Winterfest and throughout the holidays. The two are related, but they are not interchangeable: Winterfest is the season-long frame, while the Festival of Trees is one specific, chamber-presented event within it, with its own entrants, its own timetable and its own public vote. A second distinction concerns a namesake far away. Forest for the Trees is a mural festival held in Portland, Oregon, a different city in a different state with a different art form entirely, and it has nothing to do with the Jay County display beyond a verbal resemblance. Closer to home, the Jay County Heritage Festival and the Jay County Fair are separate county events in their own right, distinct from this holiday display. What sets the Festival of Trees apart from most events in this series is its setting and its method: a working county courthouse as the venue, and a friendly vote among community organisations as the whole mechanism of the occasion.
Checklist
- Look for the current season’s chamber participation form or library calendar entries to confirm this year’s dates
- Plan to view the display while it stands, before the trees are removed shortly after the new year
- Give yourself time for two passes through the trees before deciding on your vote
- Cast your vote before the voting deadline, which the season’s calendar marks as a specific last day
- If your organisation hopes to enter, note that entry was free under the 2024 form for Jay County nonprofits, service organisations, clubs and municipalities
- Entrants should watch for the delivery and decorating deadlines in the season’s form; in 2024 decorating closed on November 20
Beyond the Display
The display rewards a little attention to its setting. The venue is the historic Jay County Courthouse in Portland, the seat of Jay County, so a visit combines the trees with a look inside the county’s own civic landmark while it is dressed for the holidays. The Festival of Trees also runs within Portland’s wider Winterfest season, which means a trip to the courthouse in December lands in the middle of the town’s broader holiday period, whatever shape that season takes in a given year. The public library’s calendar is worth a glance as well, since it is the document that carried the 2025 season’s kick-off celebration and closing dates. Beyond those documented points, this article adds nothing: the record for this event is a short one, and the honest advice is to treat the courthouse display as the centrepiece of a holiday visit to Portland rather than as one stop among many documented attractions.
Why It Matters
The significance of the Festival of Trees lies in who does the decorating. The trees inside the Jay County Courthouse are not the work of a professional events company; they are entered by the county’s own nonprofits, service organisations, clubs and municipalities, the same groups that run much of Jay County’s everyday civic life. For the holiday season, the seat of county government becomes their shared gallery, and the public, rather than a panel of judges, decides which entry is best loved. The prize reinforces that character: one hundred dollars directed to the winning organisation’s programmes or projects is a small sum with a pointed purpose, turning a festive vote into modest support for local work. The event is documented narrowly, through a chamber form and a library calendar, yet what those two documents describe is complete in itself: a chamber presenting, a community decorating, a courthouse hosting, and a county voting. Few holiday events make their civic mechanics quite so visible.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who can enter a tree in the Festival of Trees?
Under the chamber’s 2024 participation form, entry was open to all Jay County nonprofits, service organisations, clubs and municipalities, and taking part was free. The form is the governing document, so a group considering an entry should follow the current season’s version of it.
How is the winning tree chosen?
The winner is decided by public vote. Visitors choose their favourite among the decorated trees on display, and the tree that earns the most votes wins one hundred dollars for its organisation’s programmes or projects. In 2024, voting started on Friday, November 22.
How long do the trees stay on display?
Under the 2024 form, the trees stood at the courthouse during Winterfest and throughout the holidays, and they were removed shortly after the new year. The library’s December 2025 calendar likewise listed a last day to view the Festival of Trees, so each season’s display has a definite end.
Is the Festival of Trees the same event as Winterfest?
No. Winterfest is the wider Portland holiday celebration, and the Festival of Trees is the chamber-presented display and vote that runs at the courthouse within that season. The two overlap in time and place, but the tree display has its own form, its own entrants and its own vote.
What to Expect From the Next Jay County Indiana Trees Festival
How often is Jay County Indiana Trees Festival held?
The documents gathered here place the Festival of Trees in the holiday season in two consecutive documented years, 2024 and 2025, with the chamber’s form tying the display to Winterfest and the holidays. On that record it is a seasonal holiday event presented as part of Portland’s winter celebrations.
When is the next Jay County Indiana Trees Festival?
The layers read document the 2024 and 2025 seasons only, and they name no dates for a later season. A future edition’s timetable would be set by the chamber’s next participation form and reflected in local calendar listings, so those are the places to watch as the holidays approach.
Will the dates change?
The exact deadlines are set season by season, and they can shift. The 2024 form fixed its delivery, decorating and voting dates in November of that year, while the 2025 calendar marked its closing days for voting and viewing in December. The holiday season itself is the stable part; the paperwork dates are the part that moves.
Closing Thoughts
The Festival of Trees is a small event with a clear shape. In Portland, the seat of Jay County, local organisations bring decorated trees into the historic courthouse, the chamber presents the display through Winterfest and the holidays, the public votes, and the winning group takes one hundred dollars back to its own programmes and projects. Its published name reverses the title this article was asked to carry, its record rests on two documents rather than a shelf of coverage, and it promises nothing beyond trees, a vote and a courthouse at Christmas. Within those honest limits, it does something genuinely worthwhile: it fills the county’s most official building with the work of its most local groups, and it lets everyone who walks in help choose the winner.
