The 2022 Missouri Governor’s Mansion Christmas arrived this morning in downtown Jefferson City as part of Madison Street was closed down. The giant flatbed truck parked in front of the mansion as crews utilizing a crane hoisted the 40-foot Norway Spruce over the sycamore trees where it was placed on the Mansion Lawn.
It’s a big’un, boys!
A 35-ft Norway spruce was placed on the Governor’s mansion lawn today in Jeff City. MDC coordinates the annual search for the tree and delivers it to the mansion the Monday after Thanksgiving. This year’s tree was donated by Tom & Sue Gleich of Wildwood, Mo. pic.twitter.com/kyypEY35q1
— MO Conservation (@MDC_online) November 28, 2022
“The Governor’s Mansion Christmas Tree is sourced by the Missouri Department of Conversation,” according to Holly Dentner with the Missouri Department of Conservation. “We’ve done this for at least thirty years. I’ve asked people in the department who’ve been here much longer than I have and nobody can remember exactly when we started finding the Christmas trees, but at least 30 years. This year, it is a 40-foot Norway Spruce from Wildwood, Missouri. Tom and Sue Gleich donated it. They have a lovely home, giant tree in their front yard. It was nearly up against their house. It was just too big for the space. They were generous enough to donate it for us.”
The Christmas tree is always cut down the week of Thanksgiving where it’s mounted on the flatbed trailer and sits in the parking lot at the Conservation Department through the holiday where it is, then, placed on the Mansion lawn the Monday before the annual lighting of the tree.
“I will say, we get a lot of questions about why we are cutting down live trees for the Governor’s Mansion,” adds Dentner. “I would just let folks know that we don’t want to cut down any big healthy trees if we don’t have to. We’re looking for trees that essentially are at the end of their lifespan. A nice big spruce like this in a residential neighborhood isn’t going to live forever, unfortunately, we’d love to see that. It’s just a fact of life that trees don’t live forever and when they get old and gigantic, that’s the perfect time for us to say, ‘Hey, we can make it beautiful on the mansion lawn for thousands of people to see.’”
Candlelight Tours and the annual tree lighting ceremony will be held at the Missouri Governor’s Mansion on Friday, December 2 at 6:00 p.m. The annual lighting of the tree will be followed by the tours, which run until 9:00 p.m. on Friday and again on Monday, December 5 from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
