In the moments after Philomath’s Christmas tree lit up the night sky Friday evening, energetic kids skipped around the giant sequoia in celebration, several people captured the moment on phone cameras and families enjoyed the atmosphere and shared some laughs.
The scene that unfolded had the appearance and feel of a classic small-town moment along Main Street and in front of the historic building that led to Philomath’s founding more than a century and a half ago.
Gallery: Christmas Tree Lighting (Nov. 22, 2024)
A collection of photos from the Philomath Community Christmas Tree Lighting in front of Philomath Museum on Friday.
Off in the distance, Santa Claus made his entrance on the fire department’s Old No. 5 antique engine and posed for photos while handing out candy canes to the little ones. Elementary school singers got the evening going with their holiday tunes. And goodies that included cookies, donut holes and hot chocolate were set up on a table near the college church.
With the Christmas tree all lit up and the historic college building-turned-museum serving as the backdrop, the prospect of hanging a piece of Philomath history on the family tree fit right in with the surroundings.
That’s a reference to the small table of unique ornaments that had been set up. Featuring colorful bulbs from the strings of lights that hung on the Philomath Christmas tree over a 15-year period, the ornaments could not only add to private trees inside local homes but also become a keepsake of what has become an annual community tradition.
The Philomath Area Chamber of Commerce puts on the tree-lighting each year and Shonnard’s Nursery has volunteered to supply lights since the mighty sequoia was planted in 2008. The first Christmas tree celebration at the site actually occurred in 2007 but with a temporary 30-foot noble fir put into place through the efforts of Bond and Bart Starker.
The next year, a committee was put in charge of bringing a permanent tree to the location and Chris Shonnard entered the picture to help find a giant sequoia, which was then planted by E.D. Hughes.
Joel Shonnard, company president and in charge of its landscape division, said that in 2023, the business felt that the lights that had been hanging on the tree all of those years needed to be retired and replaced with new ones. So the lights that are part of the ornaments last appeared on the tree in 2022.
“I had the idea (for the ornaments) right before the Christmas Tree Lighting last year but I was like, ‘it’s going to take too long so let’s just make sure we do a really good job and try to execute it for this year,’” Shonnard said, adding with a laugh, “And it came down to the wire because I procrastinated a little bit.”
So, the old lights went into storage. But Shonnard did find one more use for them.
“We covered our van with those lights and we ended up winning the first-place prize for the best float in the parade,” Shonnard said. “So that was kind of cool — they got one last hurrah going through town.”
Shonnard never considered throwing out or recycling the old lights.
“I was looking at them and I’m like, ‘these have some value to them,’ you know … they have some Philomath nostalgia to them and have been around,” he said. “Obviously, they’re not all originally from 2008 — we’ve had to add lights on as the tree has grown from 20 feet tall to now 62 feet.”
Shonnard came up with a few mock-ups and figured out a way to build the ornaments.
“It was a really cool effort by my daughter’s 4-H group,” Shonnard said. “They got together one night and 15 kids and probably 10 adults or more cranked out all 600 of them almost. The last detail that was left was my sister and her staff in the retail garden center tying on the last of the red bows on there.”
Shonnard said about 600 ornaments were made from the lights. Each ornament includes ribbon and a bamboo tag with an image of the Philomath Christmas tree on one side and the Shonnard’s logo on the other.
Shonnard had a particular image in mind for the tags that are part of the ornaments — and it took a while to get it just perfect. Admitting that he was being picky, he wanted a silhouette of what would look like the Philomath tree.
The first seven proofs just didn’t capture it right and were rejected. But the eighth representation was perfect, Shonnard said, with the silhouette based on a photograph of the actual tree.
Based on the number of bulbs that remain in stock through the Shonnard’s website, it appears that as of Saturday morning more than 300 had been sold.
The ornaments were available to purchase at Friday evening’s tree-lighting celebration but for those who still want one or more, they continue to be available at Shonnard’s in the garden center or can be ordered online for in-store pickup. The ornaments cost $7 each or three for $15.
All proceeds from the sale of the ornaments will be donated to charities that support the Philomath community.
Shonnard’s with the help of Pacific Power and its bucket truck installed the lights on the tree this past Monday. He set up a camera and created a time-lapse video of the installation. The tree has averaged 2.8 feet of growth per year since it was planted 16 years ago.
With last year’s countdown not going as expected, Shonnard also purchased an LED reader board with a countdown clock to make sure everybody knows that it’s happening. One of his two daughters, Isabelle or Aidan, has traditionally flipped the switch but this year, they found another youngster on site and passed on the honor.
