Millennium Park Christmas Tree Lighting Nov 17.
When: Friday, November 17, 2017, 5:30PM, 6:00PM-8PM
Where: Millennium Park, Michigan Avenue at Washington Street
The annual Millennium Park Christmas tree lighting and free festivities begin with a program at 5:30pm (bloviating public officials) , the official lighting at 6pm followed by musical performances. Santa and Mrs. Claus will also be stopping by.
The Annual Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony will feature performances by:
Cast members from Goodman Theatre’s A Christmas Carol
Goodman Theatre celebrates with its annual holiday production, Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Cast members from the production will perform musical selections from the show plus traditional holiday carols. Get discount tickets to Dickens’ Classic “A Christmas Carol” here.
Southwest Airlines presents Temecula Road
The rising country music trio comprised of sisters Emma and Maddie Slute and Dawson Anderson. The group will also perform on November 18 during the BMO Harris Bank Magnificent Mile® Lights Festival.
Oakdale Christian Academy Choir
70 students from the Oakdale Christian Academy Choir will perform inspirational holiday music. The choir is comprised of approximately seventy-five (75) students between the age of seven and fourteen, who are enrolled at Oakdale Christian Academy in Chicago, Illinois. All participants are required to maintain good academic standing at Oakdale Christian Academy or their local school.
This years victim is a 62 foot tall and 37 feet at the base Norway Spruce donated by Darlene Dorfler of Grayslake.
2017 Millennium Park holiday tree
I will be converted to wood chips after the holidays. Photo from City of Chicago website.
History of Chicago’s Christmas Tree
The City of Chicago’s 1913 Christmas Tree in Grant Park. Photo from City of Chicago website.
Per the City of Chicago website: Chicago’s first municipal Christmas tree was lit in 1913 on Christmas Eve by Mayor Carter H. Harrison in Grant Park. The tree was a 35-foot Douglas Spruce placed on 40-foot poles and studded with smaller trees to give the appearance of a much larger tree. It was decorated with 600 multi-colored lights and topped with the Star of Bethlehem.
The first Christmas tree was a gift of an associate of Captain Herman Scheunemann whose “Christmas Tree Ship” was lost in a storm in Lake Michigan on November 23, 1912.
As the years went on the city continued to create larger trees from many small trees. By 1956the tree was 70 feet tall, decorated with about 4,400 lights and more than 2,000 ornaments, and was located in the Grant Park tree platform at Congress Parkway and Michigan Avenue.
The Tree Lighting Ceremony was moved to Civic Center Plaza, known today as Daley Plaza, in December 1966.
In 1982, the location was changed to State Street and Wacker Drive, but returned to Daley Plaza the following year.
In 1991, Chicago’s Mayor Daley II asked the Department of Streets and Sanitation to find a large single tree to be transplanted in a city park after the holidays. The largest they could find was 35 feet tall. Hizzoner deemed that not large enough so the City killed 17 more trees to make it 50 feet tall.
In 2008 the City killed 112 trees used to form one large tree.
I’m not sure at what point the City started killing single giant 70 plus foot tall trees that are generally 60-70 years old. The site omits that information.
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