Rich's Great Tree

The Rich's Great Tree (now The Great Tree at Macy's.) is a large (70 to 90-foot tall) cut pine Christmas tree that has been an Atlanta tradition since 1948. [http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-1888] That year, the Rich's department store put a large pine tree atop its downtown store, lighting it on Thanksgiving night. The idea was conceived by head of advertising, Frank Pallotta. Later, the tree was perched over a seven-story "Crystal Bridge" that connected the original Rich's department store with a new building addition on the opposite side of Forsyth Street. With the tree on the roof of the complex, combined with its tall height, the Great Tree truly was great and could be seen for tens of miles outside the downtown district of Atlanta. It was visible for decades, well into the early 1970s, but as the city grew with new, taller skyscrapers, the view of the Great Tree became more obscured in its last two decades at the downtown store.

As the tree became an Atlanta tradition, more was added to the display to create an attraction in its own right. This included Santa's Workshop, complete with "Reindeer" on loan from the Stone Mountain Park Petting Zoo that parents and children would walk through on the way to visit with Santa Claus. The undeniable star of the attraction was the Pink Pig, a carnival ride of sorts that was a miniature monorail sized for children. Adults would be hard-pressed to fit inside the enclosed cars that the children sat in as the ride operated. The ride took children over a Christmas village outside the building that surrounded the Great Tree and once the Pig returned indoors, it "flew" over the toy department before returning to its starting point. The original pink Pig was named Priscilla. A second pig, named Percival was later added to meet the high demand to ride the pig. After completing their journey, riders got a sticker that said "I rode the Pink Pig" that became a badge of honor.

The ride moved to the Festival of Trees in the 1990s, and resided at the Atlanta History Center. The ride was resurrected in 2004 when it reappeared at Rich's Lenox Square Mall, the new location for the Great Tree. It should be noted that the new version of the Pink Pig is a conventional train ride with a miniature pink pig (locomotive) pulling a set of pink child-sized passenger cars at ground level, instead of the original monorail design. I suspect the original monorail was retired due to modern safety and liability issues as well as the probability that because the original monorail system was so old it could not be maintained as a viable and safe children's ride.

During the time The Great Tree was at the downtown Rich's store, it was undeniably the biggest Christmas-time attraction in the Southeastern United States. Parents from around the South brought their children to downtown Atlanta expressly to experience this attraction and have their picture taken with the Rich's Santa Claus. The waiting lines to ride the Pig and to see Santa very much compare to the lines that we see today where people stand for hours to ride one of the popular amusement park rides in today's theme parks. Millions of children and their parents made the annual migration during its tenure. Today in the 21st Century, when people try to prove how "Southern" they are, one of the most proudest claims to that right is that they rode The Pink Pig Monorail at the Downtown Rich's department store. The Pink Pig was an immensely popular attraction in its own right. Decades after the original Pink Pig was retired, many Atlanta natives who rode the pig as children fondly reminisce about their rides in the pig. The ride inspired the book "".

Today, much memorabilia can be found in the homes of Atlantans. The late Harry L. Morris, manager of Greenlawn Funeral Home on Spring Street, kept a Pink Pig sticker from the 1960s which now resides with his daughter.

The Rich's department store chain was sold to Federated Department Stores in 1975. After years of contraction Federated closed Rich's main downtown store in the 1990s and moved the tree to nearby Underground Atlanta. In 2000, the tree was once again relocated to the rooftop of Rich's Lenox Square Mall store, in the Buckhead community, located north of the downtown and the midtown districts. Federated began a merger of the R.H.Macy's department stores with Rich's in the early 2000s with the remaining Rich's stores being renamed Rich's/Macy's. On January 1, 2006, the Rich's name was dropped altogether in favor of the nationally-known Macy's moniker. The 2005 holiday season was touted as the last year of "Rich's Great Tree", even though the tradition continues on as "The Great Tree at Macy's". [http://lpe.ajc.com/gallery/view/living/1105/macytree/1]

The tree itself is usually around 75 feet (23 m) tall, and contains several miles of wiring, thousands of Christmas lights, hundreds of basketball-sized Christmas ornaments and mirror balls, and dozens of strobe lights for effect. It also has a huge lighted snowflake tree topper seven feet (two meters) in diameter. It uptakes hundreds of gallons of water each day (depending on the weather and humidity), along with bottles of aspirin to keep the tree fresh.

The lighting ceremony occurs on Thanksgiving night from 7:00PM to 8:00PM, no matter the weather; and is aired on WSB-TV 2. Christmas carols are sung by various musical celebrities and local groups, and at least one is usually chimed by a bell choir. The tree is lit on the highest note of "O Holy Night", and remains lit every night at least through New Year's Eve.

Originally, eight choirs sang from the Crystal Bridge, which connected all but the lower two levels of the downtown Rich's over Forsyth Street. One choir was stationed on each side of each of the four floors, ordered from bottom to top and alternating from side to side. Faux stained glass panels were put in the glass on either side (left and right) of each choir, giving the ceremony an almost church-like effect. Street lights were turned off in the area below so there was no glare for the thousands of spectators that gathered every year regardless of the weather.

Before rock and roll became the predominant form of popular music in the 1970s, the carols were sung in a traditional, even classical manner, but in more modern times, nearly all of them have tended to be performed in a gospel music style, including "O Holy Night". In earlier years, for example, "O Holy Night" was performed by an operatic soprano, while in 2006, it was performed by LeAnn Rimes.

In 2004, the tree from Snellville snapped about two-thirds of the way up while workers were attempting to use a crane to lift it from the ground to the roof. Since the tree was rather late in being set up to begin with (November 14 is only 11 days before Thanksgiving), a replacement tree (always selected in case of an emergency such as this) was being rushed in from nearby Lithia Springs. In 2003, it took eight workers three weeks to accomplish the massive decorating task.

In 2007, the title "The Great Tree at Macy's" was dropped in favor of "Macy's Great Tree."

External links

New Georgia Encyclopedia

See also

* Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree
* National Christmas Tree
* General Grant tree