Every year, Milford, CT hosts a tree lighting downtown on the green with several large Christmas trees and this tradition was continued on November 25, 2023. The event started at 5:00 p.m. and the lights were turned on at 6:15 p.m.
At the tree lighting there are many things to do such as see Santa Claus, who shows up on a fire truck. Other activities include visiting the restaurants downtown, and of course, watching the trees light up with Christmas lights.
While all of the lights are very beautiful, they don’t put themselves up. That is the responsibility of the Public Works tree lighting team. The head of the tree lighting team is Tom Hunt.
Hunt says that the team of 6 employees starts hanging up the lights the second week of October and it takes them 5 weeks total. Hunt says that it takes the team, “four weeks for the green. Through the whole City, five weeks.”
However, it is no easy task for this team. They need to hang light bulbs all the way up trees of many different sized trees. This job requires many lightbulbs and lots of determination.
‘With all big trees its 22 strands for each tree, every year we put more on because the trees continue to grow city wide ,it’s about 47,000 bulbs for each big tree.” says Hunt. “Smaller trees take about 3 to 4 strands at 300ft on the green and this varies depending how big the tree is. So if you are counting the whole city with all trees it’s about over 3 million or greater bulbs that light up are beautiful City.”
While everyone is waiting for the flip of the switch to turn on the lights, there is holiday music being played, vendors walking around, and many available restaurants to dine at.
The restaurants available downtown consist of Colony Grill, Archie Moores, Flipside, and many more ready to serve for the holidays.
Junior Jaime Sanz has gone to the tree lighting in past years, and liked it a lot. Sanz also appreciates the fact that there are many businesses available to the public during this event.
“I enjoyed it a lot because it was a fun thing to do with my friends and family,” says Sanz. “I would recommend going because it’s a great way to see the Milford community and a great way to kick off the holiday season.”
Once the festivities have been active for a little while, Santa Claus comes to town on a firetruck. He is then brought to the gazebo in the middle of the green with the mayor Tony Giannattasio where they turn on the lights. The city counts down from three and once they are done they flip a switch that lights up the green.
Junior Carli Cassone says, “It’s super fun to be around everyone in your town and it’s just such a cute christmas thing to do.”
Cassone would recommend this activity to anyone and explains that she enjoys it because it gets you in the Christmas spirit. “It’s super pretty to watch and everyone cheers,” says Cassone.
