by Max Marbut
Staff Writer
After a trip from North Carolina to Jacksonville on a wide-load trailer, the Landing’s Christmas tree arrived and was installed Wednesday.
It took almost an hour to carefully back the trailer through the breezeway from Hogan Street to the courtyard. The tree made the short journey with just inches to spare.
Wayne Holden of Sugar Mountain Nursery said he remembers the day his grandfather planted the tree. That was 40 years ago, according to the number of rings in the trunk.
Sixty feet tall and 36 feet in diameter, the tree will be decorated with 45,075 lights, more than 400 ornaments and topped with a hand-made star designed and constructed by the staff at the Landing.
When the switch is flipped the evening of Nov. 24, it will mark the 20th time a Christmas tree has lit up the Northbank in the Landing’s courtyard.