Millennium Park Christmas Tree Lighting Nov 16

POSTED BY
Carol

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Millennium Park Christmas Tree Lighting Nov 16.

When: Friday, November 16, 2018, 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 and fireworks after the lights go on at 6:30pm. Santa and Mrs. Claus will also be stopping by.

The Annual Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony will feature performances by:

The program will feature music by actress, singer and songwriter Cozi Zuehlsdorff.

Ken Ludwig’s ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas, on stage this holiday season at Broadway In Chicago’s Broadway Playhouse at Water Tower Place, now playing through December 30.

Additional music performances by musicians from the Grant Park Music Festival

NEW this year, the Millennium Park Art Market with School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Columbia College Chicago and After School Matters

The market will feature one-of-a-kind items, including jewelry, fashion, painting, sculpture, prints, drawings and more on sale by more than 150 student artists. Part of the City of Chicago’s Year of Creative Youth, the Holiday Art Market is supported by the Millennium Park Foundation. The market is free admission and will run November 16–18, 11 a.m.–7 p.m. in a heated tent on the Chase Promenade North.

This years victim is a 60-foot Norway Spruce from Elmhurst, Illinois, donated by Deborah Orth and her family.

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.