Chicago tree is lit up, safely
by Heather
Joining Mayor Daley and Santa Claus right before Thanksgiving, Bonnie Hunt hosted and celebrated an early Christmas by lighting up the city’s tree. Chicago’s annual tree-lighting ceremony was held at Daley Plaza.
This year, a 55-foot tree was donated to the festivities. 55 feet may sound like a lot — and it sure wouldn’t fit through my front door — but this year’s tree is about 30 feet shorter than the trees from years past in a nod to energy conservation. All lights were UL certified for safety. I wonder what they do if they can’t string more than three strands together on a tree that large?
A Christkindlmarket, inspired by the centuries-old Nuremberg Christmas market in Germany, opened as well.
I can only imagine how exciting and lovely the Chicago event was. The week before, and clear across the country, in San Francisco, my sons and I watched large cranes hanging lights on our Union Square tree. The mighty machines “doing their work” and the twinkly lights on the supersized tree intrigued my sons equally.
We also made it to the small town Ohio tree lighting while visiting my extended family this Thanksgiving. The weather was perfectly chilly and my sons enjoyed the crowds and window displays, but – and there always is a BUT it seems – when some of us were in conversation, the tree was lit and half our group missed it. We spent the rest of the evening arguing over who actually saw the lighting and who didn’t.
Enjoy more photos here on our Flickr account.
The National Tree lighting also happened last week, and we’ll have more pictures and stories to share.
Gotta love the effort you put into this blog