Thursday, December 17, 2009

11:16 p.m.


Every year, a man named Will Treelighter covers every millimeter of the crab apple tree in his front yard with strands of Christmas lights. It's called the Magic Tree, and we visited a couple weekends ago. One can see the orb of color from quite a distance, and although the road to Will Treelighter's home is not very well lit, it's easy to find — just follow the cars that make the pilgrimage down Old Plank Road each year at Christmas.

From the pictures I had seen, I imagined the Magic Tree to live by itself in a quiet, snowy forest. I guess that doesn't make much sense though, as it requires 16 power cables to keep the crabapple lit. In a forest, that would be one very long extension cord. Even though the tree is in the front yard of its keeper's house and in the middle of a neighborhood, there isn't a lot of light pollution. As long as the cars that park across the street in a frosty soccer field switch off their headlights, you can still imagine yourself away to a dark, wintry wood that explodes into a painting of light and color right before your eyes.

No comments: