HOLIDAY

Every year, I look forward to designing the decorations for the annual Christmas tree in Madison Square Park and programming events around the lighting. This annual event has not been without obstacles: a tree not showing up on time, a tree not showing up at all, the wrong tree showing up, torrential rain...you get it. Every year, I would do it over again. I have hot-glued my fingers off just to craft clusters of ornaments that would make the tree really pop at night. I have sewed over 250 feet of pennant flags to wrap the tree when the bulbs didn’t make it out of storage one year. I used a power drill to screw broken branches back into the tree when branches were damaged in transport. And admittedly, I have had many sleepless nights tracking the transport of the tree to the Park, sleeping in the office to greet the tree when it arrived through a blizzard.

Once the tree is up, then it's time for the community to gather for the grand illumination. I love to use this event as an opportunity to host local restaurants and non-profits, festive live music for families and speeches by local leaders from the city and the district. We celebrate the season and mark the close of the year with the warmest event in town.