Winter's Windsong
December 2022
It was our honor and delight to bring joy to so many people attending the Lexington Christmas parade with our entry, “Winter Windsong.” What’s the secret for building such an enchanting parade floats? A dash of creativity, a sprinkle of ingenuity, and a whole HEAP of help from our community.
Boxerwood floats always begin with brainstorming by our Earth Art duo, Jess and Jays Sullivan. With a theme and a vision in mind, Jess, Boxerwood’s Early Education Coordinator, and Jay, a professor of mechanical engineering, gather materials – all recycled or repurposed – and recruit a team of volunteers.
"We knew how we wanted it to come together," shared Jess. Sticking with the parade's theme, the Sounds of the Season, they decided to focus on the musical sounds and movements you might find on a walk in the woods: icicles tinkling, woodpeckers knocking, and sounds the poet Robert Frost described as “the sweep of easy wind and downy flake.”
"Once we had that concept," she explained, "everything else fell into place: children playing music on upcycled instruments, chimes in the tree branches, and Halestone dancers dressed as woodland creatures and ethereal sprites to bring this walking forest to life."
Jay built the armature – this year a wide-branching winter tree – and installed it on a trailer. The tree was made of wood and bark salvaged from other fallen trees. Volunteers participated in a community build the weekend after Thanksgiving to decorate the float, studding the sides with greenery from Boxerwood’s own boughs and berries, plus adding the magical touches – lights, signs and other thematic add-ons.
As part of the workshop, families created ornaments by heating strips of recycled plastic containers over candle flame and twisting them into icicles, then coating them with glue and crushed glass from Earthmagic Recycling, a new enterprise in Buena Vista. Kids who helped decorate the float also rode in it, using soft hammers to play the chimes and create the gentle music of icicles tinkling in the wind. Adult volunteers with harnesses carried tall evergreens – made entirely from limbed boughs. Dancers from Halestone completed the magic.
The float moved many hearts. “Amazing!,” we heard many times. Although Boxerwood and Halestone did win the Best Float award, the real reward is knowing that we succeeded in sharing with others that ever-revitalizing gift of beauty and wonder. Thank you, Jess and Jay, for your vision and hard work and thank you to all of the gardeners, artists, children, dancers, parents, friends, and neighbors who helped bring “Winter's Windsong” to life.
