The City of Orlando engaged in another holiday tradition Sunday, following the arrival of its Christmas tree at Lake Eola Park on Friday.
This morning, the Jack Kazanzas Star was raised over Orange Avenue, near Central Boulevard. The tradition of raising the 600-pound golden star started in the 1950s when two competing department stores, Ivey’s on the east and Dickson &Ives on the west of Orange Avenue, joined together in 1955 to hand the Christmas star between the two. In 1984, after the department stores had closed, Jack Kazanzas, a lifelong resident of Orlando, led a campaign to raise funds to replace the original Christmas Star that had fallen into disrepair.
The City of Orlando’s Christmas tree, a 30-foot Norwegian Spruce from Sugar Mountain Nursery in North Carolina, will officially be lit at the City’s annual Holiday Lights Orlando by Orlando’s Mayor Buddy Dyer on Friday, November 30, 2012.
For more information on holiday events in the City of Orlando visit cityoforlando.net/holiday.
