Christmas Around the World
This year’s Sweepstakes winners, Melissa Witul and Steve Steinberg, infused a message of hope in their sprawling installation. “With all that’s going on in the world, the conflicts that are escalating,” explains Steve, “we saw an opportunity to weave in our holiday wish.” Steve, a Ukranian Jew, and Melissa, a Protestant, embraced the NIA’s “Christmas Around the World” theme and married it with a message of “Peace on Earth.”
Their design is an additive process, building upon elements incorporated each year in response to the NIA’s given holiday theme. For example, last year’s theme, Sleighs on the Bay, lead to a collection of gnomes sledding down the couple’s amazing Brazilian pepper tree. This year, the added international flags to each sled, continents on the patio pillars, and Letters-to-Santa addresses from around the world.
Steve and Melissa started their 2023 design in October and began gathering new props, such as the rooftop globe which is a giant balloon in which Steve inserted a powerful light to make it glow from the inside out. “We didn’t know how long the balloon would last,” he explains. “We were shocked that it lasted a full six weeks. We didn’t take it down until the first weekend in January.