One of Downtown’s long-standing holiday traditions is one experienced by a very small group.
Each year, a few days after Thanksgiving, dozens of boxes of decorations are brought from the basement at Jacobs Jewelers to the sales floor and carefully unpacked.
The big moment comes after the Christmas tree is placed by the door and the lights are plugged into the socket.
Wednesday morning marked the 20th consecutive year of the tradition when the same lights on the same tree are tested after 11 months of storage.
“Every year, we think this will be the year the lights won’t work, but so far, so good,” said Jerri Ann Bisset after the successful illumination.
Bisset has been in charge of decorating the store and its windows along Laura and Adams streets for 14 years, but the tradition for decoration began much earlier, said Roy Thomas, who has been behind the display cases at Jacobs Jewelers with his wife, Deloris, since 1968.
They began their tradition of filling the store with decorations 43 years ago.
“It helps make Downtown more special,” he said.
Some of the decorations on the tree are more than 20 years old and many are handmade.
Some of the ornaments have been placed on the tree annually since that first Christmas and there always are a few replacements, but in the same color scheme.
“It’s a green tree with red, green and gold ornaments. It’s strictly traditional,” Bisset said.
The designs for the windows give pedestrians a sense of a time when Downtown was full of retail stores and every window was decorated for the holidays, said Thomas.
Bisset, who designs and installs decorations for many commercial and residential clients, said it takes two days to complete the holiday theme at Jacobs.
“Most of my accounts just want a tree, but Jacobs always goes all the way,” she said.
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