Living Christmas tree will conclude after this season

After more than 22 years, the celebrations will be ended because of reduced attendance.

GROVE CITY, Ohio (AP) — Linda Fitzpatrick did not come to Highland Baptist Church for the music.

She was looking for a place with a good youth program for her teenage daughter when she discovered the musically inclined congregation in this Columbus suburb.

She joined, and a month later she participated in her first “Living Christmas Tree” performance, already a Highland tradition.

That was 17 years ago, and she insists the performance is not the reason she joined. But there’s a special gleam in her eye as she reminisces about years of playing to packed houses amid the “branches” of the 30-foot Christmas tree.

“I just love praising the Lord with music,” Fitzpatrick said.

That’s why this year is so special for her. It is the last of the living Christmas tree celebrations after more than 22 years at the church. The show continues at 7:30 p.m. Saturday and 6:30 p.m. Sunday.

As a singer, Fitzpatrick stands with the rest of the 70-person choir on one of nine successively narrower platforms that make up the tree. Each is fronted with faux evergreen branches and packed with lights. During a performance, the colored bulbs flash and flare to the beat of the music, and the singers, dressed all in black, seem to disappear into the boughs, providing only a lilting chorus to the show.

Church legend has it that the tree, crafted from enormous southern pine trusses, was built using plans purchased from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. No one now knows why NASA would deal in plans of larger than life Christmas pageantry, and no one cares, because the tree has served them well for so long.

“Like most members, I’m conflicted,” said David Thomas, the choir and orchestra director who has headed up the production since 1990. “The same people who are ready for it to end are very grieved to let it go. It’s been such a part of the life of this church.”

The church is not drawing the crowds that once attended the performances, he said. Although it was typical to play before as many as 6,000 people over a five-night run 15 years ago, the church now is fortunate to attract 3,000. The tickets are free.

“It’s a lot harder now to compete with the national Christian acts that come to Nationwide [Arena in Columbus],” he said.

Jeri-Jean Ferre has been a part of every living Christmas tree performance for 22 years, and she does not even pretend to be happy at its passing. She said preparing for the event every year is a tremendous source of fellowship for the church.

The work starts in August, she said, and hundreds of the congregation’s 900-plus members are involved. There’s singing to be done, of course, but each performance also includes a 30-piece orchestra and as many as 25 actors in the drama component. Added to that are costume designers, technicians to control the tree’s 5,000-some lights, ushers and parking attendants.

“We’re not a megachurch by any means,” Ferre said. “But we’ve been blessed with a lot of talent through the years. People have come from as far away as New York to see the tree.”

Ferre is not sure what the future holds for the church, but she knows another community outreach program will replace the living Christmas tree. Still, it will be sad to see it go, she said.

“For some people, it’s how they know the church at all.”