Chicago Christmas Tree Trimmed

By Prescott Carlson in News on Nov 3, 2009 8:20PM

Normally when you think of the phrase "trimming the tree," the image that comes to mind is decorating it with lights and ornaments. But this year, Chicago is also trimming the physical size of the Christmas tree that goes up in Daley Plaza each November.

In past years, the Chicago Christmas tree was made up of over a hundred smaller trees lashed together and it rose to over 90 feet tall. For 2009, Chicago is taking a cue from New York City's famous Rockefeller Center tree and using a single spruce tree, instead. But our spruce will be a bit smaller than NYC's -- typically their trees run between 75 and 90 feet tall, while Chicago's tree will measure in at 56 feet, due to logistics in getting it downtown.The tree is being donated by Harlon and Carol Weivoda of Palos Heights, and the lights are donated by Underwriters Laboratories. With those donations and the much reduced labor to put it up, the city expects to save about $150,000 of the $300,000 price tag the tree normally costs.

This is the second move to cut back the cost of the Chicago Christmas tree -- the first came last year when the tree lighting was moved from the traditional day after Thanksgiving to a regular workday to save on overtime pay for city workers. Just one more thing to add to the list.