Whitfield County officials plan to kick off the Christmas season in the county at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 30, by lighting a 21-foot Norway spruce they hope will be a beacon of Christmas cheer for decades to come. The tree is across from the courthouse at the southwest corner of Selvidge Street and Crawford Street.
“We will have hot cocoa, snacks,” said county Board of Commissioners Chairman Jevin Jensen at Monday’s commissioners meeting. “It will be fun for the entire family.”
County officials have said they plan to have up to 15,000 LED lights, and a star on the top of the tree, which they say will be visible at night from Thornton Avenue to Hamilton Street.
The North Georgia Brass Quintet will provide music.
County officials planted the tree, which was funded by an anonymous donor, in April.
“In a way, this is back to the future for us,” Jensen said at that time. “The county used to have a tree on the south lawn of the courthouse that was decorated at Christmas. A lot of people have told me they remember the lighting of that tree each Christmas. But it had to be moved to make room for the lights or for the monuments that are there now.”
A Norway spruce can grow to 60 feet or more in height and up to 30 feet in circumference.
“This tree has plenty of room to grow here, and if it needs to grow out into the parking lot, we’ll make room in the parking lot,” Jensen said.
The tree came from Monteagle, Tennessee.
“We really were looking for something larger,” Jensen said when it was planted. “But we had to look in Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama and North Carolina. If we tried to bring in something from further away, there’s a chance it could die on the way here. And this was the biggest we could find in that area.”