To spoil the Lakewood Christmas tree lighting this year, you’re going to need a bulldozer.
The Lakewood Chamber of Commerce is renewing a holiday tradition by holding a community Christmas tree lighting ceremony Dec. 1. The ceremony will be the first since the neighborhood Christmas tree and its decorations were stolen a decade ago.
“We hope to bring a focus to the community at Christmas time,” says Rick Bentley, co-chairman of the chamber’s tree lighting committee and senior vice president of Texas Community Bank.
“We are real enthused about the ceremony. We have the Christmas spirit.”
Thieves took the original tree in the early 1980s from what was then a vacant lot and is now Harrell Park at Gaston and Abrams Parkway. The construction of Harrell Park was one reason the ceremony has not been held recently.
The original tree wasn’t permanently planted, which made it easy for someone to take it. Previous trees had been fresh-cut and were taken down after Christmas.
This time, however, the 15-foot-tall tree will be planted on top of the knoll in Harrell Park and will remain there year-round, says chamber president Eloise Sherman. Committee members say they hope the tree will become a neighborhood landmark.
“If someone wants to take the tree this year, they’re going to have to dig it up,” says Kathleen Skelton, the corporate benefits coordinator for Sam’s Club on Park Lane, who also co-chairs the lighting committee.
The 1994 ceremony, which begins at 6 p.m., will be a community-sponsored event, Skelton says. Every neighborhood business, school and church is invited to participate, she says.
The Woodrow Wilson High School Band and the school’s Variations Choral Group will perform, and Girl Scouts from Lakewood Elementary and members of the Lakewood Service League will be helping out. Santa is also scheduled to show up in a fire truck, Sherman says.
The chamber hopes this year’s lighting becomes an annual event, Skelton says.
