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WM tree lighting festivities set for Tuesday night

WM tree lighting festivities set for  Tuesday night

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WM tree lighting festivities set for Tuesday night

Holiday season kicks off with Christmas carols, visit from St. Nick

news@theeveningtimes.com

The city Christmas tree is standing tall in Worthington Park.

The West Memphis Parks Department took delivery of a huge fir tree from Wisconsin on Tuesday morning. The unusually late arrival gives the city just one week to decorate it before next week’s tree lighting festivities.

“They said it was too warm to cut it any earlier,” said Tourism Director Jim Jackson. “They wanted it cooler to transport it.”

Seasonal temperatures have been warm and dry in the Mid-South area too.

The lighting contractor took advantage of the dry conditions and began hanging lights in the park with trucks in early October.

The evergreen came in on a flat-bed trailer, bundled in a wind-breaker tarp. Filling the tall order for the city, the balsam fir tree stands more than four stories high and skies four feet higher than the tree ordered from the same grower from Milwaukee. The fir variety is known for the classic Christmas tree cone shape and the specimen in Worthington Park this year lives up to that reputation.

Decorations on the tree and placing LED-lighted scenes around the park remain on the work order to get everything ready for the tree lighting ceremony and a visit from Santa. The contractor will work half a day just to string lights and hang ornaments using bucket trucks to trim the tree from top to bottom.

The traditional tree lighting will take place on the traditional date, the Tuesday before Thanksgiving.

Santa will greet children and turn on the lights and inspect the decorations in Worthington Park next Tuesday, Nov. 22. The party starts with children from the audience singing Christmas Carols at 6 p.m., with the special guest arriving fashionably just a little later. The jolly old elf will throw the switch to light the park.

“Santa is coming in on a fire truck at 6:30 p.m.,” said Jackson. “They’ll be taking photos with Santa and the Boys and Girls club will sell refreshments.”

By John Rech

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