A massive blue spruce tree atop the Church Street Marketplace was illuminated Friday night with thousands of lights in the return of an annual tree lighting event. Crews worked for days to prepare the 30-foot-tall Christmas tree — cutting it down and transporting it from a South Burlington yard before lowering it into a temporary home at the top of Church Street. The family donating it has offered the large tree up before, but organizers said it didn’t quite clear the minimum height requirement. This year, however, it narrowly cleared the mark. It marked the city’s first lighting ceremony since 2019, with a planned event canceled last year due to the pandemic. Friday’s broadcast was also the last for NBC5 Chief Meteorologist Tom Messner before his planned retirement. It put a capstone on a 31-year career as a broadcast meteorologist serving northern New York and Vermont. “To the viewers, to my coworkers, to the management at WPTZ and, of course, to my family,” Messner said, “Thank you guys.”
A massive blue spruce tree atop the Church Street Marketplace was illuminated Friday night with thousands of lights in the return of an annual tree lighting event.
Crews worked for days to prepare the 30-foot-tall Christmas tree — cutting it down and transporting it from a South Burlington yard before lowering it into a temporary home at the top of Church Street.
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The family donating it has offered the large tree up before, but organizers said it didn’t quite clear the minimum height requirement. This year, however, it narrowly cleared the mark.
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It marked the city’s first lighting ceremony since 2019, with a planned event canceled last year due to the pandemic.
Friday’s broadcast was also the last for NBC5 Chief Meteorologist Tom Messner before his planned retirement. It put a capstone on a 31-year career as a broadcast meteorologist serving northern New York and Vermont.
“To the viewers, to my coworkers, to the management at WPTZ and, of course, to my family,” Messner said, “Thank you guys.”
