How Did You Like Our 'Blue Whale "...

how did you like our 'Blue Whale " of a Christmas tree this year, compliments of our town manager and a 'citizen' who complained he was not happy with our traditional colored lights tree. ( A citizen who happened to be related to one of the town office workers, but who has never helped  in any way with the tree lighting as far as I can recall) The traditional multi-colored lights were strung on the tree, then this 'citizen' complained, and the town manager ordered that the lights be taken down and many strings of new lights,( not so nice to my taste), were purchased in Portland and the tree was restrung- We must have $$$ to burn!! It wasn't broken, but hey! a 'citizen' complained, so we had to fix it ! My taxes just went up a few hundred dollars, but hey! we needed 'blue' Christmas tree lights!! Then I was informed by the town manager's secretary that, for my information, those lights weren't 'blue',but 'clear' . I told her that 10 out of 10 persons not blind would have looked at that tree and called it blue, regardless of what the box said.

And let me  mention the 'snafu'  that nearly occured when the 'town office elves' asked our wonderful volunteer Santa to stand down so that someone from the town office could 'play' Santa instead.Since vounteers take care of the annual tree lighting in Gazebo Park, it would have been nice to have been informed of this interference . I was the one who had contacted 'Santa' and I also had $50 worth of  donated gifts for Santa to hand out to kids who would visit with him after the tree was lit at the Gazebo. As it turned out, 'town office' Santa got cold feet, and after a bit of confusion and scrambling, our  Santa graciously made his appearance to light the tree and visit the kids. If the town office staff wants to get more involved with volunteering, that's great! Just be a little more informative and considerate of the volunteers who have been doing it for many years. The Main Street Christmas celebration is a great addition to our annual lighting, and a warm fire station visit with Santa may be more inviting than a cold chair at the gazebo, but more information will be helpful to make that transition. As long as our town tree is lit by Santa at the Gazebo, kids will be on hand to visit him- perhaps the press release should say that as soon as Santa has lighted the Town tree, he will be visiting kids at the Fire Station for hot chocolate, goodies and photos.

PS Why wasn't the pretty tree at the town office lit this year?

Faye