Santa’s Christmas tree in Old Town Elk Grove Oct. 3. Anita and John Lack organized volunteers that day to string a new set of lights on the tree.

 

ELK GROVE, CA (MPG) – New Christmas lights were strung Oct. 3 on a tree here that’s part of a decades-old holiday tradition.

Anita and John Lack organized the effort outside M&M Real Estate, which is in a building they own at 9008 Elk Grove Blvd. Both are retired from the Sacramento Fire Department.

“We’re putting up new lights on Santa’s Christmas tree in Old Town Elk Grove,” John Lack told the Elk Grove Citizen.

The Lack’s have owned the M&M Real Estate building for 20 years and have lit the tree each year.

“It had been done a few years before that, but someone else owned it,” John Lack said.

Anita Lack wanted the tree, she said, so the couple bought the land and house with it. The couple is community-oriented, she said.

The tree lighting is special, too, to the Lack family. A granddaughter was proposed to one year at the lighting ceremony, Anita Lack said.

Kevin Pack directs the placement of new strings of lights on Santa’s Christmas tree in Old Town Elk Grove Oct. 3.

The Lacks have had to revamp the lights a couple of times, John Lack said, and this time they are putting on all new ones. Squirrels might have chewed the wires, John Lack said.

Volunteers Oct. 3 were busy before 9:30 a.m. screwing lights into sockets on strands strung on the tree. The Lacks provided food and drinks for breakfast and lunch.

They were planning to string 4,000 or more lights. They came ready with 5,000 if needed, John Lack said.

“We want lots of lights,” Anita Lack said.

Plans were for strands two feet apart at the bottom of the limbs.

The tree-lighting is tied to the Old Town Elk Grove Dickens Street Faire, which is held the first Saturday following Thanksgiving. That’s Nov. 28 this year.

The faire will have more than 145 arts and crafts vendors, commercial vendors and community groups, according to the faire’s website.  

Shops and vendors will close at 5 p.m. Nov. 28 followed by carols and story time with Santa. Then at 6 p.m., Santa does a countdown for the tree lighting, Anita Lack said.

“And then miraculously the tree gets lit,” she said.