ASHWAUBENON, WI (WTAQ) – The Green Bay Packers are getting into the holiday spirit as the 2018 Festival of Lights tree was harvested Monday morning.
The mammoth balsam fir was donated by Jan and Joe Monday of Green Bay.
“It’s been here for about 50 years and they told us it’s roughly 52-feet high,” says Jan Monday.
Having a tree of that size brings some pride, but also some headaches.
“We love the tree, but when we come out of the garage it scratches the car a little on one side,” says Jan. “You can hardly get through to go to the backyard anymore it got so big.”
She also notes that they’ve had trouble trimming the tree as it continued to grow.
The tree was taken from the Monday’s residence to the Harlan Plaza at Lambeau Field where it awaits the Festival of Lights event this Saturday evening.
What do you have to do in order to have your tree selected by the Green Bay Packers? Well first, some pitching is required.
“They said [to] write an essay and I said ‘I haven’t written an essay for a long, long time,’” she explains.
Jan says their tree advanced to a group of around five total trees before their font yard giant was determined to be the best of the bunch.
The Monday’s are receiving four tickets to the Packers game on December 30th against the Detroit Lions in recognition for providing their tree.
The 2018 Festival of Lights event at Lambeau Field is being hosted by the Green Bay Packers and Festival Foods this Saturday starting at 5 PM.
The event begins in the Lambeau Field Atrium and features a number of family-friendly activities, such as holiday movies, holiday card making, and photo opportunities with Santa Claus.
Festival Foods will be providing sugar cookies that can be decorated by families.
The event will transition outside to Harlan Plaza at 6:30 PM for the formal lighting of the tree.
While it remains unknown what’s next for the Monday’s and if they will look to immediately fill the giant void left in the front of their home.
“We haven’t really decided yet,” explains Jan. “If we do we’re going to put it out a little way because this one was too close to the garage.”
