This is Christmas Tree Lane in 1959.
As some of you may know, I'm one of the Directors on the Board of the Christmas Tree Lane Association. Every 2nd Wednesday of the month we meet at the Altadena Library on Santa Rosa and Mariposa. We have 12 Board Members and only a few volunteers from the community who come and help throughout the year. There are no "owners" of Christmas Tree Lane and the County of Los Angeles has nothing to do with keeping the Lane lit throughout the year. Everything is accomplished through volunteer efforts.
Christmas Tree Lane is listed in the National Register of Historic Places and is designated as California Historical Landmark No. 990. After 87 years of tree lighting, Christmas Tree Lane is in danger of becoming extinct. The lack of volunteers and non-interest from the community has brought this question to the table of the current board members.
At the last board meeting, there weren't even enough members to get a general vote on a particular item. Doesn't anyone care?
Though there are over 500 members who donate money during the years, physical help is needed throughout the year to put up, take down and test lights and help plan the lighting ceremony. This year it took us over 2 months (on weekends only) to take down the lights and test the bulbs. If we had more volunteers, we would have had more time to plan and discuss a Winter Festival, but, now that has gone on the back burner because we're just trying to figure out ways to get more help to keep Christmas Tree Lane alive.
How YOU can help NOW:
1) Beginning on May 31, 2008 at 9am we will be clearing the brush surrounding the trees. Free donuts and coffee in the morning and a free hearty lunch is served at 12:00 at a home down the street. It's a good workout. JUST SHOW UP!!!!! Bring the whole family!
2) High School service clubs, Rotary, Kiwanis, etc. are all perfect organizations that can help.
3) Visit www.christmastreelane.net or call (626) 403-1123. You can even call me on my cell at (626) 786-1231 and I'll be more than happy to assist you with your questions or concerns.
Here's a picture of some of the volunteers at my house having lunch after working on the Lane! I'm the one wearing the baseball cap and Christmas Tree Lane T-Shirt. Steve, our Treasurer is standing next to our President, Maureen, on the right and most of the volunteers came to us from Pasadena High School.
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Those trees must be huge by now. We have a road with several miles of oak trees where the branches touch very high up over the road. So pretty.
I hope you can keep it going. It's our family tradition to caravan(3 cars) that drive from Riverside to Altadena just to see Christmas Tree Lane and the Ice Cream Mansion every year. Please Keep trying don't give up!
Wow, Windy, that's AWESOME!! That's quite a way to come - like 70 miles or so! I hope you also get to see the homes in Hastings Ranch. There are blocks and blocks of homes decorated which is also a great event not to be missed.
We're trying to see if we can enlist the help of the community to come out when we put up the lights. This will begin in October. I'll post it on this blog when we're ready. Last year we were still putting up lights on the date of the tree lighting. The year before we didn't finish. Remember, it's a mile long of trees!
Any hoo...you can see more photos and info at www.christmastreelane.net
Thanks for being such a great supporter of the Lane!
Its great to see those trees being preserved but you will always have people protesting the Christmas lights. Just enjoy while you can.
Hello, Dee Dee -
So far, we haven't had any protests regarding the lights. Our electricity bill is usually around $2,000 to $3,000. We have, however, investigated the possibility of installing LED lights instead to become more "green". Unfortunately, the colored bulbs run about $30 each right now. We are in the process of trying to work with Southern California Edison to see if they may pick up some of the cost since we're a non profit association. As it is right now, it would cost thousands of dollars per tree to switch to LED and since our budget per year is around $12,000 we just don't have that kind of money. We rely on donations to keep the landmark going. We're shooting for at least 1 LED tree this year...we'll see!