Zilker Holiday Tree facts for kids
The Zilker Holiday Tree is a super tall and bright Christmas tree made from lights! It's located in Zilker Park in Austin, Texas. Every year during the Christmas season, this amazing tree lights up with over 3,000 colorful lights. It's been a special tradition in Austin since 1967.
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The Amazing Zilker Holiday Tree
What Makes the Zilker Holiday Tree So Special?
The Zilker Holiday Tree stands 155 feet tall, which is like a 15-story building! It's not a real tree, but a giant cone of lights draped from a special tower. This huge tree is made up of 39 long strings of lights, called streamers. Each streamer holds 81 colorful bulbs. That's a total of 3,309 lights!
At the very top of the tree, there's a big double star that measures 10 feet from one point to the other. This star shines with 150 frosted bulbs. City of Austin electricians created this unique spiral pattern of lights. The base of the tree is very wide, measuring 380 feet around, and 120 feet across. The lights are hung around 19 tall utility poles, which are arranged in a circle around the main tower.
The History of This Bright Tradition
The first time the Zilker Holiday Tree was lit was on December 10, 1967. A city leader named Mrs. Emma Long had the honor of turning on the lights. Since then, a young winner of a city-wide art contest gets to light the tree each year. It's a really exciting moment for the whole community!
What Are Moontowers?
The Zilker Holiday Tree gets its height from a special structure called a Moontower. These towers are very old and unique! Austin bought these 165-foot-tall towers from the City of Detroit way back in 1894. Their job was to help light up the streets of Austin and keep people safe at night.
Austin is the only city in the entire country that still uses these historic moontowers. In the 1890s, they used very bright carbon-arc bulbs to light up the area. There were originally 17 moontowers in Austin, and 15 of them are still standing today.
In 1970, these moontowers were named Texas State Landmarks because they are so important to the state's history. Six years later, they were also recognized on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. This means they are protected as important historical sites.
Keeping the Moontower Bright and New
In 2016, the Austin Energy company worked to restore the historic moontower that holds the Zilker Holiday Tree. This project involved carefully cleaning every single part of the tower and fixing anything that was getting old or worn out.
The restoration also included putting in new LED light bulbs. These new bulbs are much brighter and use less electricity. Austin Energy says these new lights save a lot of energy each year. It's like powering 11 average-sized homes for a whole year! This helps keep the Zilker Holiday Tree shining brightly for many more years to come.
