NEWTON, Iowa — For the fourth year the Jasper County Museum has compiled a spectacular Christmas experience with more than 200 unique Christmas trees.

Presented by the Jasper County Historical Society of Iowa, the display acts as a fundraiser to help keep the Jasper County Musuem open.

A few years ago, Dave Rorabaugh who has volunteered at the museum for more than 15 years, pitched the idea and it continues to grow.

“It’s something of a dream child of mine,” said Rorabaugh. “We used to do weekend events for 200 bucks. And I said, let’s do something big. So, we came up with what we called a TREE-mendous Christmas experience.”

Local businesses, churches, and organizations are able to sponsor trees and have them decorated. The trees are decorated in different themes such as the four seasons, the M&Ms characters, the twelve days of Christmas, antique Hallmark ornaments, and more.

It’s not just organizations, people can also pitch in. The memorial trees honor loved ones who have died. Families are able to purchase ornaments or trees and have them placed and decorated in their honor.

The museum has only held the event for a few years but they are already noticing jumps in attendance each year.

“We think it’s beautiful and it’s growing. It’s snowballing and becoming better and better. And it’s that way because of the great volunteers that we have here.”

An event of this magnitude is no small undertaking, planning for the event starts in February and goes through the summer. By the fall, over 80 volunteers will begin working in shifts to help assemble all the trees and the other Christmas displays.

“We make sure that we try to build a whole exhibit that’s totally different,” said Rorabaugh. “Some years we got some upside-down trees, and then we got a spider tree, and then we have this year some 12-foot trees. Then we also bring some of our artifacts in and try to build around them with sleighs and other things like that.”

The event is free to attend but free-will donations are welcome. The experience opened on November 30th and will be open every weekend during December.

They are open Saturdays from 1 to 8 p.m. and Sundays from 1 to 4 p.m. They will also be open on Christmas day from 1 to 4 p.m.