BRISTOW, Okla. — The town of Bristow is lighting up the holiday season with the biggest Christmas tree on Route 66 in Oklahoma. The plan is to turn on the lights Thanksgiving night to kick off their Cowboy Christmas festivities. While the tree symbolizes the Christmas holiday, in Bristow, it is also a symbol of community.
"I'd been attending the Rt. 66 Midpoint Corridor Association meeting and several of the towns are coordinating for Christmas," said Kristin Weaver, an officer of the Bristow Retail Merchants Association and local store owner. "And I heard them all bragging about their big trees they would be purchasing and I decided that Bristow needed to have a big tree, too. The biggest!"
"I said, 'Absolutely!' Knowing all along that we had no budget for it," said Bristow Mayor Kris Wyatt. "So, they ordered the tree, the tree came in and I wrote a check for it."
Mayor Kris Wyatt spent $22-hundred dollars of her own salary to pay for the tree. David and Sherri Hurst who own Molly and Sox Christmas Tree Farm in town found the tree and made arrangements for it to be delivered. All that was left was the task of putting up the 26-foot Wisconsin balsam fir at 8th and Main. This, too, became a community effort.
"The city bought the metal plate, some local people donated the pipe," Weaver added. "My nephew actually welded it all together for us and then the city set it for us. When the tree came, our Creek County Commissioner Jarrod Whitehouse came and helped us set it up."
Once the tree was in place, a team of volunteers moved in to string lights and decorate it. The goal of bringing the area's tallest Christmas tree to town was clear from the beginning: encourage residents to shop local and attract tourists traveling Route 66 to stop and shop in Bristow.
"We know that when we get in visitors from out of town our stores and our restaurants thrive," Weaver said. "So we're hoping if people come visit the Christmas Tree if they come to Cowboy Christmas on December 7th to see the Longhorns in our parade, that we'll be able to bring more money into Bristow!"
So, the town's decorations committee worked to put up festive holiday banners on lightposts along main street and stores are sprucing up shop windows. Working together, the retailers are planning a map of stores for shoppers to have stamped. There is a charm bracelet adventure where shoppers can buy a charm bracelet for $2 and add charms they purchase at participating stores. In addition, the Bristow Bucks campaign rewards people who spend money in town with a chance to win money.
All of this is part of Bristow's Route 66 Cowboy Christmas festivities which begin with the lighting of the tallest tree on Route 66 at 5:50 pm November 23, Thanksgiving night. Santa will be there for pictures, stores will be open for shopping and carriage rides will be available for purchase, too. The community effort all wraps up with the annual parade of Longhorn steers through town at 6:30 p.m. December 7.
Mayor Kris Wyatt told 2 News her town is thriving and with such a united community effort, "We're looking at bringing some tourism here but also just a way to spread some joy."
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