Shrouded in holiday lights, my friend, Amy Chase, sent me that spectacular “Christmas tree” picture of the Bolivar Lighthouse. How did this happen? Let’s say a light bulb went off in Bolivar resident George McMillan’s head last month. His son Jordan designed the star by drawing it out on a concrete floor with chalk and they built the 16-foot tall star in four days! It’s illuminated with 320 white light bulbs!
In addition, there are twelve 100ft cables with 80 lights each anchored to the twelve Conical Windows at the top of the lighthouse extending to the ground to make the tree. There are 6 red-lit cables & 6 white-lit cables with a total of 960 lights making up the tree. At 116.5′ it’s one of the tallest Christmas Tree “structures” in the world!
Structures is the key word when comparing Christmas trees, because some are actually trees. I did some digging (which beats chopping) and, of course, we all know about the famous Rockefeller tree:
That tree usually comes in at 80-85 feet. Taller than that by almost half was the Christ Tree in Enid, Oklahoma which started in 2021. The original “real” tree hailed from California and measured 140′ with 20,000 multi-colored lights and 10,000 Christmas ornaments. Beautiful:
Unfortunately, high winds toppled the top portion in 2021 (but engineers quickly repaired it). This year’s 2023 tree isn’t quite as boastful at 102′ with a 20′ Bethlehem star and this year’s is a “faux” tree with steel beams to withstand those Oklahoma winds! A new light show, performances and ice skating have added to the glory! You can see plenty of photos and videos of the pride of Enid at their Facebook Page and at this Youtube video.
As for a real ‘cut’ Christmas tree nothing beats the world record according to Guinness: The world’s tallest cut Christmas tree was a 221foot Douglas fir erected and decorated at Northgate Shopping Center, Seattle, Washington, USA, in December 1950.
And that brings us back to who is winning the tallest tree “structure”: race: I found a second place such tree in Indianapolis.
The one in Indy you can see here: Every year since 1982, over 200 members of the IBEW 481 have strung lights on the Soldiers and Sailors Monument in the heart of Circle City. This massive structure is 284 feet, 6 inches tall — only 15 feet shorter than the Statue of Liberty.
But the number one Christmas Tree “structure” definitely goes to this year’s brand new 300′ communications tower tree in DeSoto Parish Louisiana, just outside of Shreveport. You can read more about this one right here.
That’s quite the record to beat, so we’ll be happy with our Bolivar Beauty! Congrats to Amy and her crew for a spectacular Lighthouse Lightshow! You can find out more about supporting the Bolivar Lighthouse reconstruction right here.
Frank
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