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Photograph: Max Herman

Chicago's official Christmas tree moving to Millennium Park

Written by
Clayton Guse
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Chicago's official Christmas tree will not be at Daley Plaza this year. Instead, it will move to Millennium Park in an effort to create a new "winter campus" that will include Cloud Gate, Maggie Daley Park, the McCormick Tribune Ice Rink and a hut for Santa Claus, according to a press release from the city. So if you were planning on getting uber-German by singing "O Tannenbaum" beneath the biggest conifer in the Loop at the Christkindlmarket this holiday season, you're out of luck.

This year's tree will be set up in the park near the intersection of Washington Street and Michigan Avenue and will be unveiled during the city's annual Tree Lighting Ceremony on Tuesday, November 24. The city is also accepting nominations for this year's official tree—it must be spruce or fir and taller than 55 feet. Nominated trees are also required to be located less than 100 miles from the Loop, which means there's a chance we could feature a tree from Indiana (gross). 

The 2015 installation will be the 102nd "official" Christmas tree in Chicago. The tradition started with Mayor Carter Harrison in 1913, who lit up a Douglas spruce in Grant Park at Monroe Street and Michigan Avenue. For more than 50 years, the tree stood in various locations in Grant Park before moving to Daley Plaza in 1966, where it has been since (for the exception of 1982 when it was moved to State Street and Wacker Drive). 

Regardless of where it's located, Chicago's Christmas tree never fails to be downright majestic, and the reflection of the tree's lights in the Bean should make for a pretty trippy sight.

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