Editor’s Journal: Atlanta’s nice vacation traditions

Someplace within the household archives, there’s a photograph of me as a toddler sitting on the lap of Santa Claus, my face bunched up in a teary-eyed primal scream. Clearly, the idea of the jolly ol’ Saint Nick was not sitting nicely with me.

The photograph was taken inside Wealthy’s division retailer in downtown, and although I don’t have a selected reminiscence of it, I believe the afternoon included a trip on the famed Pink Pig. I imply, who may carry a child to Wealthy’s in the course of the vacation season and never put them aboard the Pink Pig?

I do, nonetheless, vividly keep in mind that night. The division retailer had two five-story buildings on both aspect of Forsyth: the “Retailer for Vogue” and the “Retailer for Houses.” They have been related by the Crystal Bridge, 4 glass-enclosed pedestrian walkways stacked on prime of one another, one for every of the highest 4 flooring of the buildings.

Began in 1948 as a advertising gimmick, the lighting of the Nice Tree on Thanksgiving night time shortly turned a neighborhood custom. It was even featured on the quilt of Time journal in 1961, and within the Atlanta skyline of the day, it was a beacon that could possibly be seen from miles away.

Within the weeks previous the lighting, native tv information would observe the journey of the tree, from the choice course of for the 70- to-90-foot-tall white pine to chopping it right down to reside broadcasts of an enormous crane lifting it into place. I can’t start to think about the challenges of adorning a big Christmas tree perched 5 tales above the bottom on a slender walkway. The lights required 13 miles {of electrical} wiring.

Earlier than the lighting of the tree, every of the walkways of the Crystal Bridge could be crammed with native choirs that took turns singing Christmas carols. Lit up by vibrant lights contained in the walkways, and set in opposition to the night time sky, the choirs appeared to be messengers despatched from the heavens. Above them, perched atop the very best bridge and hidden within the darkness, lurked the night’s fundamental occasion: the Nice Tree.

On this Thanksgiving night time, my household ventured out into the frigid air to face among the many throngs exterior the shop on Forsyth Avenue. I used to be bundled up in opposition to the chilly, sitting on my father’s shoulders and watching in surprise as a choir sang 5 tales above us.

The second is eternally etched in my reminiscence. All 4 decks of the bridge lit up because the choirs joined to sing “O Holy Night time.” And when a soloist reached the hovering line “O night time divine,” the lights on the tree sprang to life.

It was probably the most magnificent factor my younger eyes had ever witnessed: the multicolored lights reflecting off basketball-sized ornaments and mirror balls, and an enormous, vibrant snowflake perched on prime.

Even the very best traditions change or fade away. Wealthy’s was offered, then folded into the Macy’s chain. The lighting of the Nice Tree was moved to Underground Atlanta for just a few years. Since 2000, the tree lighting has been held at Lenox Sq.. However the tree is now synthetic, and it stands in a parking zone relatively than atop town skyline. That call was made after the increase on a crane broke in 2012, sending the Nice Tree right into a free-fall crash onto Macy’s and piercing a gap within the roof above the Males’s Retailer.

The custom of the Pink Pig additionally lives on. We give it a nostalgic look on this month’s Large Image, as a result of a modernized model returns this vacation season to the Georgia Pageant of Bushes on the Gasoline South Conference Heart in Duluth. It’s apropos that the Pink Pig is featured in our annual Better of Atlanta situation, since it’s considered one of Atlanta’s most iconic “bests.”
So, too, is the Nice Tree. Many years away from my childhood, it stays considered one of my favourite ghosts of Christmas previous.

This text seems in our December 2024 situation.

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