Blue Tree Shines in its 70th Year

December 9, 2024
• Hundreds flocked to the Town Common Saturday night for the annual Blue Tree lighting, a tradition now seven decades in the running.

For 10-year-old Aaron Tahiraj, it’s all about the palpable joy and cheer. For David Logiudice and his son Parker, it’s about the special guests, like Olaf the snowman and Santa Claus.

But for all those who bundled up on the Common Saturday, the holiday season is incomplete without the main event: the blue tree lighting.

The longstanding local tradition invited attendees to indulge in free hot chocolate, sing holiday songs with the Needham High School Concert Chorale, watch a performance from Olin College’s Fire Arts Club and share their Christmas wish lists with Santa.

After arriving by fire truck — and flooded by a sea of adoring fans — Santa led the crowd in a rendition of “Jingle Bells” and raved about the blue tree. While Select Board Kevin Keane said the town has been “on our best behavior,” Santa offered his input.

“It’s finally good to see you off the naughty list after so many years,” Santa said to Keane.

“Life lesson, kids: Always stay on Santa’s good side,” Keane said.

Tedi Eaton, the longtime Needham town clerk who retired in April, had the unique privilege of flipping the switch for the lights — though a crew from Needham Parks and Forestry helped out behind the scenes. Surrounded by family and friends, the town counted down and watched the tree spring to life.

To Keane, the switch does more than turn on a few lights.

“This is no ordinary light switch,” Keane said. “This light switch lights up a whole city and sends a signal to the community that a season of charity, compassion and kindness is upon us.”

Forestry Foreman Mike Logan first attended the tree lighting as a child in the ’60s, cementing his nostalgia for the holiday and now close involvement in the tradition. Logan has now worked for the town for about 30 years, he said, helping to string lights on the tree and across the Common.

Though it was formerly strung with glass light bulbs, the tree and surrounding area are now decorated with LED lights, Logan said, but “it takes a village.” Ornaments, wreaths and other accoutrement scale up the holiday cheer, especially as the town now celebrates with a much smaller sugar maple after the 70-foot one was removed in 2015.

Logan estimates the number of lights is “in the hundreds,” and while Needham is now operating with a shorter blue tree — about 40 feet tall — even a “mighty oak started out as a little nut,” he said.

The young tree, in Keane’s view, “is a symbol of our enthusiasm for the future.”

“Every year, this tree grows bigger and bigger, and every year, we have to buy more lights, which is kind of a nice problem to have,” Keane said. “One day far in the future, when you kids bring your own kids to see the blue tree, it will be a giant of a tree. It’ll be about 80 feet tall. It’ll be shining with so many lights that even Sunita Williams, if she’s still up in space, will be able to see it from the International Space Station.”

Tahiraj, the 10-year-old Needham resident, spends Christmas Eve in Boston with his family before waking up “bright and early” the next morning to open presents and watch “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.”

While Tahiraj hasn’t asked Santa for anything specific this year — he said he already has “everything that I’ve ever wanted, like my family” — he will be expecting a present under the tree.

“I’d say I’m on the nice list,” Tahiraj said. “I do all my chores every day.”

Gabriel Aumond, 9, of Needham, wants a new laptop and “a bunch of Legos” for Christmas this year. It was Aumond’s first blue tree lighting, which he said was “awesome.”

Christmas for the Logiduce family involves visits to their grandparents’ house for presents, decorating the tree and buying cookies for Santa before he arrives.

“We heard Santa has a thing for chocolate-covered Oreos,” David Logiudice said. “We get some of those, some carrots [to] make reindeer food.”

The tree lighting is a tradition Logan hopes continues into the next generation of children.

“It’s a great thing to see, because when I was a kid growing up here, that’s what drew me in, that’s what took me here,” Logan said. “To see their faces and do something good for them — because they’re going to remember this too when they’re my age, old, they’ll remember how it was back in the day and hopefully they’ll just keep the tradition going. That’s what it’s all about.”