Cookeville will kick off the holiday season Sunday night with the Annual Tree Lighting Ceremony at Dogwood Park.
The event features Christmas singing by local groups and the lighting of Cookeville’s 40-foot Christmas tree. Cookeville Mayor Laurin Wheaton said the community takes a moment to pause and reflect on what is really important this time of year.
“For me, that’s family and community,” Wheaton said. “And so being able to do this for our community and hopefully remind them that this is a wonderful place to live, we are happy to celebrate Christmas is why it’s, you know, really important for me to be able to do this, you know, continue this tradition.”
Wheaton said though it takes a lot of work to put the big Christmas tree up, it’s great to host community events. Wheaton said the city is also using the celebration to spread awareness about the fire department stuff-a-truck event, which will donate household items for fire victims.
“When I came into office, doing the tree lighting, I made sure that we partnered with a local non-profit,” Wheaton said. “We’ve worked with PEP (Foundation) in the past. But making sure that while we are coming together as a community, we are, you know, trying to care of the community as well.”
Wheaton said the city originally held the lighting tree event at the Cookeville History Museum when the tradition first started, but the event has grown more and more each year. Wheaton said the 40-foot tree is quite the attraction throughout the holiday season.
“It has a synchronized music show that happens every hour,” Wheaton said. “That will happen all throughout the Christmas season, and I think it’s a beautiful focus of Dogwood Park, which is already a lovely addition to the center of town.”
Wheaton said she hopes people will drive by the tree and think about why it is the most wonderful time of the year. The event will start at 6pm.