Budget-Friendly County Christmas Tree Something Even Scrooge Could Love
Greg Wilson/Anderson Observer
It will quietly light up tonight on the courthouse square in Anderson, a precursor to next Friday, when the season’s festivities commence downtown, centering—quite literally—around a tree. Not just any tree, but a monumental, 58-foot spectacle, rising cheerily on the courthouse square. It’s the sort of local landmark that, in less pragmatic times, would have merited only passing mention. But this tree has earned both civic pride and something brisker: a place in the annals of county frugality.
Ten years ago, with holiday expenditures spiking and a wounded magnolia tree refusing to rally after an ice storm, Anderson County Council made a decision that drew skepticism as well as gleeful anticipation. The county purchased a 28-foot Majestic Mountain Pine—artificial as all get-out. Local traditionalists quietly mourned the scent of a live tree and spectacle of the annual dragging it onto the square, while their fiduciary-minded counterparts began tallying receipts.
In retrospect, the council’s move has proved both inspired and economical. Upgrades each since 2015 have stretched the tree to 58 feet, its lights multiplying and ornaments growing each season with an effect both dazzling and, more quietly, efficient.
Call it the Miracle on Main Street, but artificial trees, it turns out, suffer neither root rot nor sticker shock. Over the tree’s eight festive years, the county has realized nearly $100,000 in savings—enough to fund some very large stockings. Total outlay to date for the ever-growing synthetic pine: about $60,000. Had officials opted for a live, cut tree each Yuletide, the county’s tab would have soared to $200,000 and beyond. With the tree’s warranty extending until at least 2030, the county’s Scrooge-like thrift is, suitably, evergreen.
An annual live tree—count the transport, the labor (weeks, not days), the inevitable cleanup—would bleed Anderson County’s coffers to the tune of $48,000 a year. In 15 years (the years of the current tree's warranty), that cost could reach more than $700,000. By comparison, the long-term expenses for the reigning artificial spruce (including the tree, all lights, ornaments, and scheduled rejuvenations) are projected to total $350,000. For once, government math makes for pleasant reading.
The savings are not merely theoretical—they materialize each holiday season in the form of fuller public purses and, not incidentally, a livelier downtown. The tree has become a draw in itself: visitors arriving for selfies, school groups rink-bound for wintery skating, nuptials, and spontaneous acts of neighborliness, with donated hats and scarves accumulating beneath its branches. On Friday, as Anderson’s massive artificial tree twinkles to life, it won’t just mark the official start of the season. It will stand, spruce and unblinking, as a quiet rebuke to impulse spending, and a reminder that even tradition, handled wisely, can save a buck or two.
For this, we might thank the county’s leadership—most especially Anderson County Administrator Rusty Burns, who championed the tree’s purchase and, rumor has it, considers the holidays a year-round celebration. His illuminated Santa in the historic courthouse window will soon herald the season’s arrival, and all the good cheer—and careful budgeting—that comes with it.
And let’s not forget the efforts of the county workers who assemble and decorate the tree each season - Lamont Clemons, Dale Crowe
Chris Drake, Evyn Whitfield, Gentry Keown, Michael Stevenson, Franky White, Travis Woodrum and Justin Whitfield - each of whom deserves a little something extra from Santa this year for their work spreading holiday cheer.
