The Christmas tree lights were to go on for the 63rd time Saturday evening at Tacoma’s traditional spot – South Ninth Street and Broadway.
Let’s make it the last time and move the tree-lighting tradition next year eight blocks south to Tollefson Plaza.
I know. I know. Changing a tradition makes it no longer a tradition, which keeps us grounded and connected.
In one of my favorite motion pictures of all time, “Fiddler on the Roof,” the main character, a Russian peasant, spends seven and a half minutes talking and singing powerfully and convincingly about the importance of tradition to his poor Jewish community.
“How do we keep our balance?” Tevye asks. “That I can tell you in one word: Tradition! Because of our traditions, we’ve kept our balance for many, many years.”
As the film goes on, however, Tevye breaks with tradition time and again as he marries off his three daughters in uncustomary fashion.
What Tevye teaches us is this: While traditions can add balance and meaning in life, true wisdom comes from knowing when to break them.
The time has come to break with tradition when it comes to the location of Tacoma’s Christmas tree.
Why?
First, look at this year’s tree. You can’t even see it from all angles.
The Pantages Theater lobby underwent a much-needed expansion in 2006 that pushed it 30 feet toward the traditional tree stand, which has necessitated bringing in smaller firs cut from Fort Lewis the last three years. The permanent street tree planted along Broadway has grown so tall and leafy that it dwarfs and overshadows our Christmas tree.
When you think of our nation’s pre-eminent public Christmas tree, I’ll bet the much-photographed tree in New York City’s Rockefeller Center comes to mind.
What makes New York’s tree so special? It stands alone in an open space, which allows it to dominate. Ours did for years too, but no longer can.
Second, Tollefson Plaza will get a tree this year, too.
The Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber has the master license from City Hall to schedule events for Tollefson Plaza. The first public event? Tollefest – a winter festival and tree-lighting ceremony Saturday. The 3 p.m. event follows the conclusion of the Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital’s Festival of Trees fundraiser at the adjacent Greater Tacoma Convention and Trade Center.
The City of Tacoma built Tollefson Plaza with a below-ground tree stand installed just for this occasion. In September 2007, Tacoma Power installed a utility pole in the stand temporarily for use in a pole-top rescue competition held in conjunction with a safety conference at the convention center. It looked cool and dominated the landscape.
A tree there, along downtown’s main thoroughfare, has nothing to impinge on or compete with its dominance.
Third, a groundswell of public sentiment for moving the tree has started to surface.
Last December I wrote a column asking Tacomans where they thought their tree should go. Now, David Boe, a Tacoma architect and vice chair of the city’s Planning Commission, resurrected the same question on exit133.com, a Tacoma-centric blog.
Boe used his artistic skill to superimpose a decorated Christmas tree over photographs of various locations around downtown – in the plaza between the Chihuly Bridge of Glass and the Washington State History Museum, on the Murray Morgan Bridge, in Tollefson Plaza.
“With the Festival of Trees right next door at the Convention Center,” Boe writes, “the (light rail) whizzing past, and a large empty space completely devoid of signs of life, is there a better spot for locating a large and festively lighted tree as a symbol of enduring hope?”
Among the 23 responses to Boe’s question, Tollefson Plaza rises to the top of the list of options. None advocated keeping the tree in its traditional place.
In “Fiddler on the Roof,” Tevye and the people of his village in 1905 Russia sing:
“Who day and night must scramble for a living, feed his wife and children, say his daily prayers? And who has the right as master of the house to have the final word at home? The Papa!”
Since we have finally broken that tradition after 100 years, finding a better place for Tacoma’s Christmas Tree in Tollefson Plaza shouldn’t be so difficult.
Dan Voelpel: 253-597-8785
dan.voelpel@thenewstribune.com">dan.voelpel@thenewstribune.com
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