By Margo Dixon
Northside News
Christmas trees symbolize the romantic part of the holiday season. Trees are illuminated throughout the holiday season, creating a cozy atmosphere that invites warmth and celebration. It represents friends, family and optimism about the future. Helen Marks Dicks is the person on the Northside who truly accentuates this. She displayed 60 trees throughout her condo in 2025, but in some years there have been more.
She has a core of eight trees which are exhibited each year, while much time and care is given to determine which other trees will be exhibited. All of the trees are reevaluated each year as the trees age and new decorations have been accumulated.
Dicks always loved decorating for Christmas. She decorated a few trees in the condo she had lived in from 2003, but in 2012 she toured a condo at Cherokee Condominiums with a friend and each visualized a Christmas fantasy at this location. The number of trees began to grow from three in 2004 in the smaller place, to nine, then 18.
Adding trees became more affordable with the advent of LED lights. It also led to fewer extension cords and no blown fuses. There are other displays that are year-specific, like this year’s 80th birthday tree in celebration of Helen’s 80th birthday.
As the number of trees grew, the planning became more involved. Helen recruited her “elves” from La Follette High School. The elves help bring the trees into the condo and help organize disassembly and storage. Additional volunteers help do the final setup and decorating. This process starts in mid-October. The process is complete by Thanksgiving, ready for the first open house the following weekend.
The first of the core trees adopted was the Cardinal Tree. The cardinal, with the vibrant red plumage of male cardinals, is often associated with vitality, strength and renewal. Their presence can symbolize hope and the promise of new beginnings, as is the mantra of the holiday season. So many cardinal decorations have been donated over the years that there are two cardinal trees, one small and one full size. Others included in the core are the Met Tree (ornaments from the Metropolitan Museum of Art), Peace Trees (both large and small), and the Cat Tree, which honors Helen’s cats, Abigail and Eleanor.
Helen puts much thought into each tree. Consideration is given to what color should the tree and the lights be to enhance the decorations. Each tree has a unique topper and a theme-related skirt.
There are too many themes to mention them all, but some of my favorites are the RBG Tree, the Badger Tree (hung upside down), the Alice Tea Party Tree and the Capitol Tree, which is made of Angora fur, displaying the official Wisconsin State Capitol ornaments.
Interest in the “The Magical Forest” grew year after year. Helen moved from hosting one open house, when attendance grew to over 100, to having scheduled open houses. An RSVP was requested so the crowds could be managed. This year there were six open houses attracting more than 200 people. Attendees were asked to donate nonperishable items and/or cash to The River Food Pantry. It is estimated that more than 250 pounds of food was donated.
As Helen said, The Magical Forest is “eccentricity at its height crossed with some craziness…. It’s a labor of love and now an annual tradition.” Visit face
book.com/helemarks.dicks to view more pictures.
