Another Atlanta holiday tradition has officially come to an end: the annual Macy’s Great Tree Lighting ceremony.
Macy’s confirmed, first to Channel 2 Action News this week, that the store had retired the annual event.
“As Atlanta’s holiday shopping destination, Macy’s Lenox Square will continue to welcome customers in store to give love and give style this holiday season,” Macy’s said in a statement.
The event for more than 20 years drew thousands of people to the Macy’s at Lenox Square in Buckhead, where the Channel 2 station WSB-TV would host a TV event and feature music acts singing holiday songs. The tree on the roof of Macy’s would light up at 7 on Thanksgiving night followed by fireworks filling the air above the mall.
The announcement came not long after the city of Atlanta decided not to hold the once annual Peach Drop on New Year’s Eve at Underground Atlanta. And Macy’s in 2021 had retired another long-running Atlanta tradition: the adorable Priscilla the Pink Pig children’s train ride, which debuted in 1956 at the once venerated Rich’s department store.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution was the first to report last week on the no-go for the Peach Drop, which debuted in 1989 at Underground Atlanta and became a popular gathering spot on New Year’s Eve for partygoers, Atlanta’s take on the iconic Times Square ball drop in New York City. The Atlanta event had drawn upwards of 100,000 people, but was canceled three years in a row before returning last year.
The annual Great Tree Lighting debuted in 1948 at Rich’s in downtown Atlanta when the store placed a 75-foot tree on the roof. It later moved to a multi-level glass bridge between two buildings. Estimates of crowds at the event would often exceed 100,000. The imagery became so iconic, Time magazine used it on its cover in 1961.
Credit: AJC FILE PHOTO
Credit: AJC FILE PHOTO
“I’m sad to see it go,” said Monica Pearson, who hosted the WSB-TV broadcast of the lighting for nearly 30 years. “It was a gift to the city from Rich’s. When it was downtown, it looked like a picture postcard with the choirs.”
One year in the mid-1980s, Pearson even got to sing “O Holy Night” as the lights on the tree came on. “That was the ultimate,” she told the AJC in 1997.
Rebecca Bannister, a 52-year-old marketing director who now resides in Ball Ground, said it was a family tradition when she was a child to go to Rich’s.
“We ate a late afternoon Thanksgiving dinner with all the aunts, uncles and cousins,” she said. “As it got dark, we started to pile in for the trip downtown. We would walk semi-single file to our usual spot under the RIch’s bridge. For our family, when that year’s soloist hit the high note on ‘O Holy Night,’ the Christmas season had officially begun!”
When the downtown Rich’s closed in 1991, parent company Federated moved the tree to Underground Atlanta, where attendance waned. In 1994, Rich’s purchased Macy’s. Federated in 2000 decided to move the tree to the Macy’s flagship Atlanta store at Lenox Square in Buckhead after reinforcing the roof. (Rich’s officially disappeared as a brand name in 2005.)
“We wanted the lighting to be associated with an actual store,” said Marla Shavin, who worked for publicity for Macy’s in the 2000s. “It was huge. We added a lot of star power.”
Performers who have lit the tree in past years have included Kenny Rogers, Trisha Yearwood, Alicia Keys, Usher, Peabo Bryson, Edwin McCain, Trace Adkins and Jordin Sparks.
For many years, Macy’s used a live 70-foot-tall Georgia white pine and they’d hoist the tree with plenty of media attention. In 2011, the tree cracked and broke while being lifted and Macy’s had to use a back-up tree. Macy’s would switch to an artificial tree in 2013.
The event the past three years was scaled back to a private, invite-only event following the COVID pandemic and budget cuts.
Priscilla the Pig for many years was tied to the now retired Great Tree. The pink critter first hung from a monorail on the ceiling of the toy department at the downtown Rich’s. In later years, Priscilla was joined by Percival, and they traveled outside the building, circling the Great Tree that was also a Rich’s tradition.
After the downtown Rich’s closed in 1991, Priscilla and Percival reappeared on a railroad track at the Festival of Trees, and, after that, moved to a tent outside Macy’s in Lenox Square. Priscilla is now displayed during holiday seasons in the lobby of the Atlanta History Center.
Credit: Steve Schaefer
Credit: Steve Schaefer
Tom Sullivan, a former radio host for Star 94 who grew up attending Rich’s Great Tree Lighting as a child, did a radio station stunt in 2000 in which he spent 17 days on the roof of Macy’s next to the big tree during the Bush/Gore presidential election uncertainty. The moniker of the stunt: “All I Want For Christmas is a President.”
“I fed the tree 100 aspirin every day,” he said. “I made sure it was watered.” Macy’s provided him a queen-sized mattress to sleep on and the radio station plugged local restaurants who fed him for free.
“I didn’t want to get down!” he said.
Sullivan, who still has an oversized ornament from that 2000 tree, noticed Macy’s didn’t have one up this year and figured it was a cost-cutting measure. “What an amazing tradition,” he said. “I was glad to be part of it in my own hometown.”
Credit: Tom
Credit: Tom
Credit: Hyosub Shin, hshin@ajc.com
Credit: Hyosub Shin, hshin@ajc.com
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