MILTON, Vt. (WCAX) – Milton residents are searching for the annual Charlie Brown Christmas tree in the hopes of adding an ornament of their own.
“‘There it is!’ I was like a kid in a candy store. I was so excited,” Terri Sabens of Milton said of her reaction when she finally spotted the tree.
The tradition, in its ninth year, was first thought up by Chris Taylor.
“I go for walks around town and I just started noticing these trees as I was going by. And I said, ‘You know what, one of these days I’m going to put a red bulb on there and see what happens,” Chris Taylor, creator of the Milton Charlie Brown Christmas tree, said.
Every year since, Taylor picks a new tree and invites the Milton community to search for it. The tiny evergreen with a single red ornament — reminiscent of the tree in the Charlie brown Christmas movie — inspired the community to do more than that.
“The great thing that actually happened out of that is organically is that people started adding their own ornaments, which I think is a real testament to Milton and the people in Milton, and it just sort of took off from there,” Taylor said.
Sabens’ has followed the tradition from the beginning, but this was her first year looking for the tree and adding ornaments of her own. She had two ornaments made in honor of two longtime members of the Milton community, Don Turner and John Cushing, both of whom died within the last month.
“We lost Don first, and I’ve known Don for over 30 years. He was just the best guy in Milton, and I was like, “I would love to put a memory ornament on there,” Sabens said. Then when Cushing passed not long after, she had a second ornament made too.
“When I saw these remembrance ornaments, I actually got pretty choked up about it. I was fairly close with those two individuals and to see those on the tree really kind of got me,” Taylor said.
Taylor asked that we not give the location away, which means there’s still time to hunt for the tree for yourself and to add your own ornament.