YOUNGSTOWN — The festiveness of the holiday season is in full swing, and that also means JoAnn Yaskulka is seeing lots of red.

“Next weekend, we will get a live tree,” Yaskulka, of Poland, said Saturday.

In the meantime, after having decorated her home’s interior for the holidays, she was content merely to take in the red poinsettias, lights, cardinals and angel atop a Christmas tree that represented the Butler Institute of American Art.

That 9-foot tree, which was Yaskulka’s favorite, also is among the 52 trees that make up the annual Winter Celebration: Festival of Trees holiday display that kicked off Saturday at the D.D. and Velma Davis Visitor and Education Center in Mill Creek MetroParks’ Fellows Riverside Gardens.

The trees will be displayed on both of the center’s floors through Dec. 31, Jessica Jablonski, visitor services manager, said.

“We used to have themes, but now, each organization comes up with its own theme,” she explained.

Each tree represents a Mahoning Valley nonprofit agency, business or organization that adds the decorations onsite before Mill Creek Park officials display them, Jablonski noted.

Entities represented at the festival of trees include Metro Mutts, the Montessori School of the Mahoning Valley, Ursuline and Cardinal Mooney high schools, the Down Syndrome Association of the Valley, Stability in Crisis Ministries, Rocky Ridge Neighbors, Second Harvest Food Bank of the Mahoning Valley, Northeast Ohio Adoption Services, Akron Children’s Hospital of the Mahoning Valley, Friends of Fellows Riverside Gardens, the Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County and Help Network of Northeast Ohio.

On Saturday, Yaskulka also was part of a “girls’ day out,” because she was accompanied by her sister, Angela Kopnisky of Stow; mother, Donna Zagorsky of Poland; and sister-in-law, Kristi Zagorsky of Youngstown.

Yaskulka’s holiday plans include spending Christmas Eve largely with her husband’s family and Christmas with her parents, she added.

For her part, Donna Zagorsky’s favorite tree was one adorned with large red and white ornaments, a Santa Claus face and other decorations, courtesy of Mahoning County Juvenile Court.

Even though the Valley soon will be in the throes of winter, Stan Vuletich of Berlin Center has his sights set on spring. That’s because he’s part of the Mahoning Valley Dahlia Society, and he was happily giving away free dahlia seeds on Saturday.

In addition, Vuletich teaches classes on starting and growing the colorful perennials that are native to Central America and Mexico. He also has planted gardens at well-known local areas such as White House Fruit Farm Inc. in Canfield and Mount Union University in Alliance, he said.

Nevertheless, that doesn’t mean his thoughts are devoid of the holidays. The Dahlia Society has a decorative and colorful tree on display that sports a series of white lights, gold ornaments and, of course, white and red dahlia flowers.

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