31 Days of Christmas – Day #18

When Christmas Went Outdoors

Almost 100 years ago, 10-year-old David Jonathan Sturgeon lay in bed in Denver, doomed to die. To cheer him up, his father lit a small Christmas tree in his sickroom. Young David, pointed through the window at an evergreen growing on the front lawn, exclaiming, “Oh daddy, please put some lights on that tree, too. It would look wonderful!”
His father, David D. Sturgeon, operator of an electrical business, strung colored lights on the evergreen; and David lay there smiling as he watched them sparkle like emeralds and rubies against the mantle of snow.
The tree was the talk of the town. In horse-drawn carriages and chugging automobiles, people came from miles around to drive slowly past the Sturgeon home and admire the tree which Denverites proudly believe was the first lighted living Christmas tree in the land.
By Christmastime 2 years later, little David was dead. But neighbors, who had marveled at his tree, lit trees in their own yards and gardens, turning their section of town into a glittering fairyland. House by house, block by block, the idea spread; and through the years, more and more of these dazzling monuments to a dying boy’s wish appeared.
8 years later, in San Francisco, another little boy was sick at Christmastime. Because the little boy couldn’t see the family tree, Clarence F. “Sandy” Pratt, painted some full-size light globes and strung them on a wire around an evergreen on his lawn across the street.
Like Denver’s tree, it attracted much attention. And before New Year’s Eve, the sick boy was well. This so impressed Sandy Pratt, that he resolved to spend the rest of his life persuading others not only to light living trees, but to plant them. He organized the Outdoor Christmas Tree Association of California, and began sending 2-year-old redwood seedlings to anyone who would promise to care for them and light them at Christmastime.
Today, in city parks, along highways, on dark and snow-drifted lawns alike, lighted living trees remind millions of the birth of Christ. -Grady Johnson-