What you should know about the city of Milwaukee's 2023 Christmas tree-lighting ceremony

The city of Milwaukee's official 2023 Christmas tree lights up this weekend. Here's what you need to know about what is possibly Milwaukee's longest-running holiday tradition.

When is the city of Milwaukee's official Christmas tree being lit?

The tree-lighting ceremony for the city's Christmas tree will be held at 6 p.m. Nov. 17. Mayor Cavalier Johnson will be on hand, along with Bango, DJ Quadi, Santa Claus, and Rudolph, Vixen and Holly from Reindeer Games, from a reindeer farm in Erin.

The tree, a 38-foot Colorado blue spruce donated by Denise Blue of Milwaukee, is 7 feet taller than last year's.

Where will the Milwaukee tree-lighting ceremony be held?

For the second consecutive year, the city of Milwaukee's Christmas tree will be parked in the Deer District, the plaza outside Fiserv Forum, 1111 N. Phillips Ave. For the holiday season, the plaza again has been renamed the "Cheer District."

Will there be anything else going on at the Milwaukee tree-lighting event?

Starting at 5 p.m., there are performances planned by First Stage, Skylight Music Theatre, Wisconsin Conservatory of Music, Milwaukee Repertory Theater and Black Arts MKE.

How much does it cost, and where can I park?

Admission is free. According to the Deer/Cheer District, parking is also free at the Highland structure, 1030 N. Sixth St., and the Fifth Street Parking Structure, 1215 N. Fifth St.

Didn't Milwaukee used to have its official Christmas tree somewhere else?

In its early years, the tree-lighting ceremony was held on Wisconsin Avenue. As early as 1989, the ceremony moved to Red Arrow Park, but it was shifted to City Hall in 2016. Last year it moved again, to outside Fiserv Forum.

How long has the city of Milwaukee had its own official Christmas tree?

The City of Milwaukee unveiled its first "community Christmas tree" on Dec. 24, 1913. The tree, paid for with community donations, was installed in the Grand Avenue Court of Honor, the collection of monuments along what is now Wisconsin Avenue in the median across from the Milwaukee Public Library's Central Library. Multiple sources indicate that Milwaukee's official city Christmas-tree tradition is the second-longest-running in the nation; New York City first set up its "Tree of Light" in 1912 (a tradition supplanted by the Rockefeller Center tree-lighting event, which started in 1933).

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