Downtown St. Paul is officially a "real-life Hallmark Channel" Christmas town, thanks to the 40-foot-tall decked-out tree on display in Rice Park.
The Hallmark Channel is featuring the tree, lit by 25,000 lights, on its website via a live camera, according to the organization's website. Only four other cities are included in the stream — St. Petersburg, Fla., Harbor Springs, Mich., Bethlehem, Pa., and Corning, N.Y.
The St. Paul tree, which was erected by the Salvation Army in partnership with the St. Paul Downtown Alliance, will be up through the first week of January, said Joe Spencer, president of the alliance. The redesign for Rice Park was finished in 2019, complete with a vault that was meant for the tree to be set up on, Spencer said.
"It's downtown St. Paul's town square and the tree fits in like it was always meant to be there," said Spencer.
The tree's lights snap on just after dusk and are accompanied by an additional 30,000 lights on display at the park.
After not being erected during the pandemic, the annual holiday tree is once again standing for the first time since 2019. Its presence is just another sign that holiday activities in downtown are back, and bigger than in 2021, Spencer said.
"The crowds are bigger. The appetite for people to get out has snapped back this year," he said. "If you haven't been downtown, now is the time."
On the live cam, there's a link from the city's convention and visitors bureau inviting visitors to "revel in the magic of the season," whether that's going to the European Christmas Market in Union Depot (open on the weekends through Dec. 18), to plays like "Black Nativity" (on until Dec. 24 at Penumbra Theatre) or the progressive rock group Trans-Siberian Orchestra's show (Dec. 23 at Xcel Energy Center).
