CARROLLWOOD — The holiday trees are back.
The annual Holiday Trees Display & Auction at the Carrollwood Cultural Center, 4537 Lowell Road, runs through Dec. 14. Visitors can view themed holiday trees in the lobby and bid on them online.
Proceeds benefit the Tom Jones Tuition Assistance Fund, which helps families send their children to summer camp at free or reduced tuition. Jones, widely considered the founding father of the Carrollwood Cultural Center, formed the idea as early as 1996 and saw the doors open in 2008. He died in July 2024 at 85.
The fundraiser takes on added importance this year after the center lost $25,000 in state funding from the 2024-25 budget. That auction typically raises about 25% of the center’s annual fundraising goal.
Last year, the auction brought in $2,700.
Friends of the Carrollwood Cultural Center, the nonprofit formed four years before the facility opened, named the fund after Jones in 2010 when he stepped down as founding president.
The display is open during normal business hours and during classes and events. For more information, visit www.carrollwoodcenter.org/events/holiday-trees-display-and-auction.
The online auction runs 24/7 through 9 p.m. Dec. 14.