Fairmont's Christmas tree has brightened the holidays for over 50 years

Paris has the Eiffel Tower. India has the Taj Mahal. Fairmont Hot Springs has its Christmas tree. Every holiday season since 1973, Fairmont Hotsprings has brought in a donated tree from nearby, dressed it up to the nines, and proudly displayed it in the front lobby.

The trees, which have historically been no more than 23 feet tall, draw admirers from near and far who revere its size and theatricality.

For Vern Cook, the resort’s maintenance director and the man behind the tree, this is Tree 41.

“When I first came on in November 1985, it was a 14-footer,” Cook said.

Cook explained that over the years, the trees they selected grew from 14 feet to 15 feet to 16 feet to 20 feet by 1990.

“Twenty-three is our max,” Cook said, explaining they choose trees between 22 feet 6 six inches and 23 feet. “Otherwise it comes out into the walkway and is falling down on the floor.”

He said in the early days of the resort’s gigantic Christmas tree, people occasionally got hurt from the tree falling.

Nowadays, Cook said, the crew has every aspect of the tree down to a science: the setup, the decorating, and the takedown.

“We hook it to a winch and pulley system to keep people safe,” Cook said.

This year’s tree is a 34-year-old Douglas fir and was donated by the Bartoletti Ranch. Cook said that over the years, the Bartoletti Ranch has donated between eight and 10 trees to the resort.

“If we had to buy a tree like that it’d be 5 to 10 grand, with how big it is,” Cook said.

The height of this year's tree is 22 feet 6 six inches, the diameter is 17 inches, and the circumference is 53.4 inches.

“It’s something special,” Cook said. “When you stand by it you look like a dot.”

This year, the maintenance crew used 234 strings of LED lights, 5,475 light bulbs and 231 boxes of tinsel.

The tinsel is one thing Cook is especially proud of.

“You don’t see tinsel trees anymore,” he said. “A lot of stores don’t even sell it. Sometimes it’s hard to get 200-300 packages of 2,000-strand tinsel.”

Cook said he will sometimes have to go to upwards of 20 stores to find tinsel, especially enough tinsel to do a 23-foot tree justice.

He said he lets his crew handle the tinsel while he does the lights. He and the other employees have to use a scissor lift to get the whole tree decked out, let alone place the topper on.

Cook said he takes care to reach all the way back to the center of the tree to make sure the lights can be seen everywhere on the tree so there are no dark spots.

All of the tree decorations are stored and reused except the tinsel, Cook said, because it becomes tangled after it’s been stored for a year.

As far as ornaments go, Cook said that the Fairmont staff used to make them themselves and would make classic ornaments including rocking horses, snowmen, and stick horses, but they slowly disappeared.

Now, the tree is adorned with plastic bulbs the size of softballs, Cook said.

Cook said the tradition has persisted because it is unique in the experience and ambiance it provides visitors and employees alike.

“Fairmont’s just in the mood for doing stuff like that,” Cook said. “It’s a neat tree, neat atmosphere.”

He said the resort hosts a lot of parties and groups during the holidays, and even has weddings in front of the tree. He also said people get excited to help with the tree.

“People want to get tinsel and help with all of that,” Cook said, adding that the resort sometimes hosts “hot chocolates about town” around the tree.

“It’s the commodity of bringing people in and meeting new people,” Cook said.

To get the tree through the doors, the crew uses an ATV and cuts some of the branches off, reattaching them later by drilling holes where they were and using screws and rods to secure them back in place.

At the base of the tree, Cook and the rest of the staff ensure the towering fir always has water. He says when they first bring it in, they fill it with about 10 gallons of water a week for a couple of weeks, then five, and then eventually the tree uses very little.

Cook said once the tree is inside, putting it up takes approximately eight days of work with six guys, and they generally try to put it up right before Thanksgiving, and they leave it up until after Serbian Christmas. This year, the tree will stay up until Wednesday, Jan. 7.

The take-down is much faster, about three hours for four guys, he said.