By Shareen Strauss
The McCloud Chamber of Commerce has started a new holiday tradition involving all the local children decorating holiday trees instead of having a crane put lights on a large tree on Main Street.
A McCloud mother of 4 children, Kasey Girard, came up with the idea of ditching the lighting of the large tree on Main Street and having a Charlie Brown Tree Grove where all the McCloud students are bussed over to decorate the trees with ornaments that they made in school. Using a picture of themselves, each class has its own tree to adorn, each with a different theme.
The preschoolers made snow globes, the 2nd, and 3rd grades made gingerbread ornaments, the 4th and 5th grades made ugly sweater ornaments, and the high schoolers’ tree is decorated as the Nightmare Before Christmas with Jack Skellington.
Because of the large number of children, they rotated between decorating their trees and visiting the McCloud Heritage Junction Museum across the street. Some children that have lived their whole lives in McCloud have never been to the museum. The most popular attraction at the museum was the 1946 carnival mirrors where both teachers and students had fun moving in front of the mirrors and enjoying their funny shapes from the distortion.
Kelly Fox who is the paraeducator and also known as the resource aid said that the schools really appreciate being involved.
“The community spirit is what keeps our town together. This really uplifted the kids, spirits. They are happy to be involved. Life continually throws curve balls but when the community comes together to swing that bat, it is a home run for everyone.”
The Chamber sponsors for this event are McCloud River B & B, Trad Team Racing Development, Heart of the Earth, McCloud Sports for All Programs, McCloud Market, Black Fox Timber Management, McCloud Hotel, Sojourn, Siskiyou Brew Works, McCloud River Mercantile Company, and the McCloud Recreation Council.
Each sponsor donated $75 that goes towards the trees, lights, and other decorations.
On the first Friday night of December, Santa comes to McCloud to light up the trees.
