In Mobile, Christmas trees aren’t often packed up and placed into storage in January. Instead, the trees just gets a little brighter and shinier through Fat Tuesday.
As traditions go, Mobile residents tend to remove their Christmas decorations after New Year’s Day and replace them with Mardi Gras decorations ahead of the city’s annual celebration of the Carnival festival.
City government is now planning to participate in the same tradition with, perhaps, the largest Christmas and Mardi Gras tree in the city.
“The Mardi Gras tree will happen this year,” said George Talbot, spokesman for Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson.
““Our hope is that citizens and visitors will enjoy the tree as much as they did during the Christmas season, when it became the backdrop for countless selfies and a popular meeting place for families,” Talbot said.
Talbot said the city is in the process of purchasing Mardi Gras ornaments, which he estimates will cost around $6,000.
The tree’s framework remains at Mardi Gras Park after city work crews had removed its “branches” ahead of this weekend’s storms. The branches, instead of being packed up for the year, will be reinstalled next week.
Talbot said the idea of redecorating the tree for Mardi Gras came from social media reaction generated by Steve Joynt, who runs the Mobile Mask publication.
Joynt, in a Facebook post on Thursday, said he first tossed out the idea on social media and approached Talbot about it. He said his first post had over 1,000 likes, 200 comments and 200 shares.
“That’s a lot of activity for our humble little Mardi Gras page,” Joynt wrote on the Mobile Mask page. “And virtually every one of you seems to love this idea.”
Mobile City Council President Levon Manzie, who represents downtown Mobile, said the redecoration of the tree is about giving “the people what they want.”
He said, “It further proves the level of accessibility the citizens have to us and we’re listening and wanted to respond.”
The tree has been a part of the Christmas season at Mardi Gras Park since 2018, when the city’s annual tree lighting ceremony was moved from its longtime location at Bienville Square.
Mardi Gras Park, itself, is relatively new. The municipal park located in across Royal Street from the History Museum of Mobile was opened in 2016. The Hearin-Chandler Foundation provided the key funding, infusing around $1 million toward a $2.5 million project.
The park is surrounded by brightly colored statues representing aspects of Mobile’s Mardi Gras tradition.
It’s also located along a parade route, and the park has become a popular gathering spot in recent years during some of the festival’s largest parades during Carnival season.
Talbot said the city will call on the public’s help to protect the tree from harm during the parades.
“If successful, it could become a new tradition for Mobile Mardi Gras,” he said.