City Christmas Tree Lighting Set For Wednesday
CHICAGO (CBS) - Temperatures are finally feeling wintry as city officials prepare to light the Christmas tree in Daley Plaza.
The 97th annual Christmas tree lighting ceremony is scheduled for Wednesday afternoon. It will be Mayor Richard M. Daley's last ceremony before he retires from office next year.
Holiday musical performances begin at 4:30 p.m., and the switch will be flipped at 5 p.m.
The tree has already been in place for some time. The 70-foot blue spruce was provided by John Colomer of McHenry and his family.
The tree stood in a lot that was set to be cleared for development and had to be cut down.
A single tree was also used in Daley Plaza last year, but in years before that going back more than half a century, the city erected an 85-foot conical tree composed of scores of smaller trees. The tree the year before last was made up of 113 smaller trees.
But a 2008 report by CBS 2 Investigator Pam Zekman reported showed the city paid more than $300,000 for city workers to build the frame, decorate the tree, and dismantle it over the course of six weeks.
Following Zekman's report, the city decided to scrap the compound tree for a single one.
