The Chicago Christmas Tree is the city of Chicago's official

Christmas tree A Christmas tree is a decorated tree, usually an evergreen conifer, such as a spruce, pine or fir, or an artificial tree of similar appearance, associated with the celebration of Christmas. The custom was further developed in early modern G ...

. It is located in

Millennium Park Millennium Park is a public park located in the Loop community area of Chicago, operated by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs. The park, opened in 2004 and intended to celebrate the third millennium, is a prominent civic center ne ...

. Historically, the tree was located in Grant Park and

Daley Plaza The Richard J. Daley Center, also known by its open courtyard Daley Plaza and named after longtime mayor Richard J. Daley, is the premier civic center of the City of Chicago in Illinois. The Center's modernist skyscraper primarily houses of ...

History

The first official

in the city of

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

was installed in 1913 in Grant Park and lit on

Christmas Eve Christmas Eve is the evening or entire day before Christmas Day, the festival commemorating the birth of Jesus. Christmas Day is observed around the world, and Christmas Eve is widely observed as a full or partial holiday in anticipati ...

by then-mayor Carter Harrison. This first tree was a tall

spruce A spruce is a tree of the genus ''Picea'' (), a genus of about 35 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal ( taiga) regions of the Earth. ''Picea'' is the sole genus in the sub ...

tree. In December 1956 the official tree, though still installed in Grant Park (at Michigan Avenue and Congress Parkway), was not an individual tree. The tree was a combination of many smaller trees, stood tall, and was decorated with over 4000 lights and 2000 ornaments. Beginning with Christmas 1966 the official Chicago Christmas tree was placed in Civic Center Plaza, now known as

. With the exception of 1982, the tree was installed in Daley Plaza each year until 2015. The city continued to use multiple trees to constitute the official Chicago Christmas Tree through Christmas 2008, that year the tree was constructed from 113 individual trees and stood . Following a report from CBS 2 in Chicago which revealed the erection of the frame and construction of the tree cost the city $300,000, the city decided to do away with the multiple trees and erect an individual tree in Daley Plaza.Christmas Tree Lighting Kicks Off in Daley Plaza
, '' CBS 2'', November 24, 2010, accessed December 15, 2010. This was billed as a way to save the city money during the

economic recession In economics, a recession is a business cycle contraction when there is a general decline in economic activity. Recessions generally occur when there is a widespread drop in spending (an adverse demand shock). This may be triggered by variou ...

. The 2009 Daley Plaza Christmas tree was an individual tree donated by a family in

Palos Heights, Illinois Palos Heights is a city in Cook County, Illinois, United States. It is a southwest suburb of Chicago. Per the 2020 census, the population was 12,068. Geography According to the 2021 census gazetteer files, Palos Heights has a total area of , of ...

. The 2009 tree cost was reduced by more than half of the $300,000 the 2008 tree cost to erect, decorate and maintain. Because the 2009 tree was just one tree, as opposed to multiple smaller trees, it could not support the weight of the many

ornaments An ornament is something used for decoration. Ornament may also refer to: Decoration *Ornament (art), any purely decorative element in architecture and the decorative arts *Biological ornament, a characteristic of animals that appear to serve on ...

that usually adorn the Daley Plaza tree and thus it was decorated only with

lights Light is an electromagnetic radiation, part of which stimulates the sense of vision. Light or Lights may also refer to: Illumination * Light bulb * Traffic light Arts and entertainment Music * Lights (musician) (born 1987), Canadian singer-son ...

. In 2010, for the first time, the Daley Plaza Christmas tree was chosen through a

contest Contest may refer to: * Competition * Will contest * Contesting, amateur radio contesting (radiosport) Film and television * ''Contest'' (2013 film), an American film * Contest (1932 film), a German sports film * " The Contest", a 1992 season 4 ...

." The contest began in July 2010 but the deadline was extended after none of the original submissions met the height requirement. The contest winner was decided based on the results of an

online poll An open-access poll is a type of opinion poll in which a nonprobability sample of participants self-select into participation. The term includes call-in, mail-in, and some online polls. The most common examples of open-access polls ask people t ...

. Chosen from three finalists, the winning tree, donated by a

McHenry, Illinois McHenry is a city in McHenry County, Illinois, United States. It is a suburb, part of the Chicago metropolitan area and is located about 37 miles northwest of Chicago. Per the 2020 census, the population was 27,135. McHenry was at one time ...

family, received 2,678 votes out of 5,182. For 2015, the Chicago Christmas Tree was moved to a new location in

Description

The official Chicago Christmas tree has varied in height from the spruce used in 1913 to the tree used in 2008. The contest rules in 2010 laid out a number of prerequisites that were required of the winning tree. The winning tree had to be at least tall, the tree chosen measured , and had to be a spruce or

fir Firs (''Abies'') are a genus of 48–56 species of evergreen coniferous trees in the family Pinaceae. They are found on mountains throughout much of North and Central America, Europe, Asia, and North Africa. The genus is most closely related to ...

tree as pine trees were deemed not sturdy enough. In addition the tree had to be found within of the

Chicago Loop The Loop, one of Chicago's 77 designated community areas, is the central business district of the city and is the main section of Downtown Chicago. Home to Chicago's commercial core, it is the second largest commercial business district in Nort ...

and in a location that it could safely be removed from. The tree used in 2010 was decorated with 7000

LED light An LED lamp or LED light bulb is an electric light that produces light using light-emitting diodes (LEDs). LED lamps are significantly more energy-efficient than equivalent Incandescent light bulb, incandescent lamps and can be significantly ...

s and the

tree topper A tree-topper or treetopper is a decorative ornament placed on the top (or "crown") of a Christmas tree. Tree-toppers can take any form, though the most common include a star (representing the Star of Bethlehem), finial, angel ("Christmas angel"), ...

was a lighted star. The fir used in 2010 weighed in at .

References

{{Christmas trees Individual Christmas trees Culture of Chicago Christmas in the United States Articles containing video clips Individual trees in Illinois 1913 establishments in Illinois

History

Description

See also

References