Lighting the Christmas tree

A town tradition

ISABEL BRAVERMAN
Posted 11/30/16

President Calvin Coolidge lit the first National Christmas Tree on December 24, 1923 in Washington, DC. Standing at the foot of the tree, the president touched a button that lit the tree …

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Lighting the Christmas tree

A town tradition

Posted

President Calvin Coolidge lit the first National Christmas Tree on December 24, 1923 in Washington, DC. Standing at the foot of the tree, the president touched a button that lit the tree electrically, with 2,500 bulbs in red, white and green. The tree was donated by the president of Middlebury College in Vermont, Coolidge’s home state.

That first national Christmas tree would be followed every year thereafter at the White House. But the first community Christmas tree stood in Madison Square Garden in New York City in 1912, according to history.org. “A towering pine, the focal point of an outdoor celebration that embraced the city’s diverse ethnic heritage, was hoisted into place and covered with a galaxy of twinkling electric lights,” the website says. Within a couple of years, towns across America followed the tradition of lighting a Christmas tree for all the townspeople to enjoy.

New York City created another tradition with the lighting of a Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center in midtown Manhattan. That began in 1933, although “the unofficial tradition began during the Depression-era construction of Rockefeller Center, when workers decorated a smaller 20-foot balsam fir tree with strings of cranberries, garlands of paper, and even a few tin cans on Christmas Eve (December 24, 1931),” according to Wikipedia. Each year a different town is chosen from where to cut the tree down, a pride and joy for the town.

These traditions carry on today. Many towns and hamlets hold tree lighting ceremonies the weekend after Thanksgiving, like Honesdale, PA, which combines its lighting ceremony with a parade and an after-parade celebration replete with a visit from Santa and friends, and Callicoon, NY (see right). But for those who missed them and would like to participate in one, a few are yet to take place (see sidebar). Neighbors and friends gather, warm drinks in hand, to look at the tree light up the night and signify the beginning of the holiday season.

First tree lighting in Callicoon

CALLICOON, NY — A crowd of about 100 people gathered next to the Callicoon train station on the evening of November 23 as the hamlet held the first of what is planned to be many annual tree-lighting celebrations. Marie Zalesky, for some time Sullivan County’s oldest resident, had been invited to switch on the lights and reportedly was looking forward to the event eagerly. Sadly, she had passed away only a few days before, and the honors went instead to a couple of the youngest present: Ryan and Nicholas Mauer, representing the local children who had made ornaments for the town tree and helped put up the holiday decorations all around town.

Following the lighting, the crowd joined in singing a few favorites including “Deck the Halls” and “Sleigh Ride” (some of the adults had forgotten the words, but the children put on a particularly spirited rendition). Looking forward to the hamlet’s upcoming Dickens on the Delaware event on December 10, there was then a reading of what was described as a “tall tale” set during the period of Charles Dickens’ second visit to the United States. According to the tale, due to a mishap on a train ride, Dickens wound up stranded in Callicoon, and the “warm and embracing nature” of the hamlet so restored his failing health that it allowed him to live on for another three years, “basking in the unprecedented popularity of his literary genius.”

And who but “Dickens” himself (costumed appropriately) should show up as the reading concluded, after which he and the crowd retired to the Callicoon Brewery for festive libations.

Dickens on the Delaware will run from 12 noon to 7 p.m. on Saturday, December 10. Visit www.dickensonthedelaware.com.
— Anne Willard

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