Although they couldn’t be more different than Christmas trees, but alike them, Halloween trees have become quite popular in the recent years. For the past couple of years, our friend Alfredo Majuri Vargas has been crafting Halloween trees, which have brought him much love and appreciation, and this year is no exception. Alfredo Majuri has created a beautifully adorable Halloween Town tree that instantly reminds us of our favorite Halloween movie (well, favorite of the most).
This Florida-based artist is famous for his Disney-themed Christmas and Halloween trees. In 2018, Alfredo built a Christmas tree inspired by Snow White and Evil Queen, which many people associated with Halloween. And last year, the artist created a Halloween tree drawing inspiration from Disney’s Maleficent and Fantasy Parade dragon.
Year after year, his creations are giving us glimpses of his imagination and are inspiring us to awake our talents as well. For 2020, Alfredo Majuri has built the Halloween Town tree from the Nightmare Before Christmas and it is an embodiment of creativity.
To know more about this gorgeous Halloween Town tree, we contacted him and here is what he had to say.
Homecrux (HC): What’s your source of inspiration?
Alfredo Majuri (AM): My source of inspiration is basically knowing that when I finish doing what I’m doing, I am going to be happy and I will be able to share it with the world. There are fans of the holidays, décor, or the theme I choose and it’s great to share my talent with everyone else.
HC: All your creations are one-off, and we understand the amount of hard work that goes into creating something like this. What do you have to say?
AM: Absolutely, it is a lot of work. It’s months and months of thinking, deciding what to do next, how I can outdo myself the next time. Sometimes I have 3 or 4 themes in my head with an idea for each one and I have to choose which one I will make next. I try to make as much as possible rather than buying the stuff because that’s what makes it unique. I usually go on the web and see what other people have done with that theme so I don’t repeat anything other people have done. But regardless the time it takes is my time to let my mind fly away and let creativity take over.
HC: Did you do it alone or had some help?
AM: For the Nightmare before Christmas tree and house décor, I did it all by myself. I started during the mandatory lockdown due to the virus. Luckily, I keep materials in hand and was able to work on that stuff while I had nothing else to do. In previous years, I had some friends’ help to set it up, but not this time.
HC: The characters, the setting, and lighting – everything looks exquisite. Could you elaborate a bit on each of these aspects? How do you manage to maintain perfect detailing?
AM: Yes, I like to keep it as close and realistic to the movie. I can’t tell you the amount of times I watched the movie to grasp all the essence of it. I like to always build my trees in a way that can tell a story. So even that not everything is to a perfect scale, it works in a cohesive way and makes you feel like you are there.
The characters, I bought them from a collection but each building was handmade, carved and painted. Every single stone and brick on the fence, the graveyard, the shingles in the roofs, the tiny windows, and the car, even the skulls were all hand made. The lighting plays an important part because the choice of colors has to go with what is happening on the tree. And I use also a blacklight that way the windows and all the buildings glow when it is dark, because they are painted with UV reactive paint.
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HC: How many characters have you displayed from the movie? How long do you plan to have this installation at home? What are the plans for Christmas?
AM: I showcased 12 characters from the movie. I would have loved to have more but were hard to find. And this tree is staying all the way until Christmas. That’s why I choose the theme because it covers both holidays. I’ll be changing the existing tree to look like Xmas in Halloween town and adding a second tree with Christmas town as well.
But for Christmas, there will be some changes. Perhaps snow will fall on the buildings and the citizens of Halloween town will decorate their world for Christmas. And across the living room there will be that strange world that Jack visits called Christmas Town on a different tree.
HC: Where do you source the material from? Is it largely recycled?
AM: Yes, I keep large cardboards, Styrofoam, and anything I can use. I also don’t throw away anything from years before, so that I can reuse it and give it a different look. A lot of the stuff on this tree is the same stuff from the Maleficent Dragon Tree.
HC: How’s the response on social media/internet?
AM: Surprisingly, I haven’t seen a negative comment. Everyone has loved it in every source I shared it. I guess it’s because this is the perfect theme for this season and that movie gets a lot of fans worldwide. It’s a classic.
HC: Last year you created Maleficent Halloween Tree. How are the two projects different from each other, in regards to materials used, time taken, and the estimated cost involved?
AM: Both trees took the same amount of time to build a setup. But the difference was that it was a more organic tree because it was a dragon and I had to make it to look alive even though was supposed to be a steampunk machine.
With this one everything was very architectural due to the amount of buildings. I have never built buildings like that for any of my trees. There was a lot of measuring and making sure everything fitted where they needed to go.
HC: Your favorite Halloween movie?
AM: I must say the Nightmare Before Christmas is my favorite Halloween movie. Who can’t sing “this is Halloween” as soon as this season comes around?
HC: How Coronavirus pandemic has changed the way we celebrate Halloween/festivals? How are you and your family coping with the present situation?
AM: COVID 19 has definitely changed the way we do everything. I think some of us have coped with it better than others. I try to live my life as normal as possible under the circumstances. But definitely this Halloween season and the upcoming Christmas are definitely a bit different. But I think people are ready to have fun and try to forget all of this for a bit, but always being cautious.
HC: Who would you like to design/build something for?
AM: I actually have the privilege to currently work designing and building things for Universal Studios in Florida and I’m glad to be part of big projects for Halloween, Christmas and beyond. But if I had the chance to do a tree-like mine to someone else would be any celebrity that have been part of any of these movies.
