Towering tree returns for Christmas Eve Masses at Saint Vincent Basilica

A 26-foot-tall green-and-white addition to the Saint Vincent Basilica awaits members of the local Catholic parish when they arrive Tuesday evening for 5 p.m. and midnight Christmas Eve Masses.

For the first time in several years, a single towering Christmas tree once again will provide a backdrop for the holiday services at the basilica on the Saint Vincent College campus in Unity.

“They absolutely love it,” Vicky Booth, logistics manager for event and conference services at Saint Vincent, said of parishioners’ reaction to the arrival of the new artificial tree, which will be aglow with a multitude of white lights. “Through the years, a lot of families would come and take their picture in front of the (previous) tree. I’ve gotten calls from people saying, ‘We’ll be back for a photo.’ ”

The previous 30-foot artificial tree, purchased with money raised through the parish, was a centerpiece in the basilica apse for more than a decade but was retired about five years ago.

“There was not one original light on it,” said Booth, who has been involved with preparation and display of both versions of the basilica tree. “It was time to replace it.”

“The older tree was deemed a hazard for the workers to assemble after a number of years,” said the Rev. Vincent de Paul Crosby, an artist, designer and member of the monastic community at Saint Vincent. “It was in such bad shape.”

In subsequent years, three smaller live trees were arrayed in the apse at Christmastime. But, Crosby noted, “There is so much more drama in one very large tree. Now, we’re back to that point.”

Crosby assisted in selecting the new tree, which was ordered from a supplier based in Georgia thanks to an anonymous donation. Its updated features include LED lights, a step up from the incandescent bulbs that illuminated the previous tree.

Both trees were erected by assembling an underlying metal framework and attaching limbs of simulated greenery.

The previous tree had fewer but bulkier limbs than the new one, Booth said.

It took a day and a half, beginning Dec. 12, to erect the new tree.

Crew members from the Silvis Group, a landscaping company with an office in Mt. Pleasant, used a rope and pulley to hoist and stack the six tapering sections of the tree’s frame. Harnessed to safety lines, they climbed up the skeleton and attached the limbs, working from top to bottom.

Booth, joined by volunteers including Saint Vincent monks and novices, “fluffed” the tree limbs and fitted them with lights.

“The limbs needed to be fluffed because they were compressed in shipping,” Crosby said.

It took another day for Booth and one of the monks to readjust the limbs, to finish shaping the tree.

“We were on stepladders and using poles to grab hold of the limbs, to fill in the areas that needed it,” she said. Each worked on one side of the tree.

A tree-topper piece that had been handcrafted by a Saint Vincent staffer for the previous tree had gone missing, Booth said, so the Silvis Group loaned a large lighted star decoration to provide the finishing touch.

“I think it turned out absolutely beautiful,” Booth said of the new tree. “You’ll hear little oohs and ahhs when the tree’s lights pop on. It lights up the entire choir area.”