POCATELLO — This year’s Festival of Trees has been a huge success with more trees, more gingerbread houses and more events to ignite holiday cheer than ever before. Planned by the Pocatello/Chubbuck School District 25, the festival is a four-day event used to raise funds for the district’s Education Foundation.

    Director of the Education Foundation, Shelley Allen, says the event is going really well and is on pace to equal or surpass last year’s total attendees. With their ticketed events, such as Friday night’s Princess Tea Party and Saturday’s Christmas Preview Dance Show, on pace to equal or better last year’s totals, Allen is optimistic.

    “This year we have more of everything,” Allen said. “We’re bursting at the seams. There have been nights that you couldn’t walk through here, which is a nice problem to have.”

    Wednesday was the opening night and Allen estimates they had more than 700 people visit the Stephens Performing Arts Center, making it their busiest night yet. Allen said they’ve had to move Santa’s workshop upstairs to the mezzanine level to make way for two more tables needed to display the gingerbread houses.

    Allen also said that there’s been an ebb and flow to the event’s attendance, with days being slightly slower than the evenings.

    “During the day it can be more quiet, but at night when we have singing groups and different people coming to the ticketed events it translates into traffic through the trees,” Allen said. “It’s been fabulous,” said Allen.

    Among the events that drew a crowd was Saturday’s Christmas Preview Show presented by Rhythm ’n’ Sole Dance Studio based in Chubbuck. Hundreds passed by the beautiful lit trees finding their way to the Jensen Grand Concert Hall to watch the Rhythm ’n’ Sole dancers perform. The $5 admission went straight to the Education Foundation.

    At Friday night’s Princess Tea Party, Allen said she had two women run up and grab her to tell her the tea party was fabulous and better than ever with it being oriented to all age groups.

    Last year, the Festival of Trees raised more than $87,000 for the district’s students. The money is used exclusively for technology in the classroom for things like interactive white boards and iPads.

    “The money from this festival goes straight to our kids, and that’s the best part about it,” Allen said.