With Christmas months away, downtown pines for new tree

Labor Day’s coming soon, Halloween’s still ahead and Thanksgiving, too, so it’d be jumping the gun to kick-off the countdown to Christmas – that said, Lois Reed’s counting on early present to pave the way for the holidays.
Last November, the Gladewater Chamber of Commerce dynamo told council members about developing plans to replace downtown’s community tree in time for Christmas 2024. She quickly netted a $15,000 commitment from the city to fuel fundraising for the towering decoration.
Nine months and about $19,000 later, the tree’s ordered and will soon be headed this way.
“It will be shipped at the end of September, so we are excited,” Reed said. Plans are already underway for the city’s holiday open house, Christmas parade and other activities, but she’s keeping mum about most details: “’Santa Claus is Coming to Town’ is our theme. You can use your imagination.”
Obviously, Reed has a fondness for the old ‘tree of many colors’ purchased by the chamber and maintained by city employees for years, but she’s definitely excited to see the new tannenbaum unveiled later this year.
“It served its purpose, we got our money out of it, but it seemed to take longer each year to get it up and decorated,” she said. It’s seasonal successor should be a bit easier to set-up and disassemble each time aroudn: “It’s not supposed to take near as long as before.”
By the numbers, the new tree cost $18,967.73 – “$688 for shipping,” Reed lamented – funded by the city, chamber, Gladewater Economic Development Corporation and various other private donors. “We started working really hard last year. I kept pleading my case. I had individuals bring me money to go into our Christmas tree fund,” including local business owners.
“It is a 22-foot Olympia pine, fully pre-lit. A commercial LED tree — 8,300 lights. Instead of a tree with many different colors (You know I had to add to the garland every year?) this has 27,478 tips. So, instead of that garland look, we’re going to have actual limbs. To think that it’s going to have branches!”
Reed’s still refining plans for the new tree’s decorations. In the meantime, she’s excited for what it says about the town.
“It’s our new community tree. The community saw the need and wanted to take part in it. Everyone will enjoy it… and it should be easier to take down!”