Millennium Park Christmas Tree Lighting Nov 19.
When and where: Virtual holiday program November 19, 2020 6:30pm
Tree up at Millennium Park, Michigan Avenue at Washington Street Friday, November 20, 2020—January 7, 2021
Due to COVID-19 health and safety concerns, DCASE will not present an in-person Tree lighting ceremony this year. Visit Millennium Park to see the City of Chicago Christmas Tree near the intersection of Michigan Ave. and Washington St. from November 20 through January 7. The Park is open daily, 8am to 9pm, for groups of 10 persons or fewer who practice physical distancing and wear face coverings. For information about where to enter/exit the Park and other details, visit Plan Your Visit.
Where to see holiday lights around Chicago
This years victim, a 45-foot Blue Spruce from the Morgan Park neighborhood Chicago, Illinois, being installed November 11, 2020.
Tree being installed November 11, 2020
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.
Chicago on the Cheap is a member of Living on the Cheap, a network of websites published by frugalistas, journalists and consumer advocates. Find practical advice on saving money on groceries, travel and shopping, plus tips from our experts on how to live the good life for less at 
Pam Schwetz says
Since it is in Millenium Park it would be more earth friendly and make more sense to plant an evergreen tree that would grow every year and live there year round and just be decorated for Christmas rather than continue the barbaric tradition of killing trees. We need trees for oxygen and they are just beautiful and deserve to live. It is such a waste to kill a magnificent tree so people can look at it for a month or two before it gets chopped up into little pieces. Really is a senseless tradition that should be corrected. Just in general that tradition should be scrapped. People should plant an evergreen tree they can decorate if they want to. If they can’t plant a tree then they should get a fake tree they can put together every year and take down without hurting any real trees.
Carol says
I wish they would do that.