If you’ve ever yearned to experience the lighting of the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree in NYC, Silver Dollar City may have the next best thing this year.
New for the 2025 season, a towering live Grand Fir tree and lighting ceremony is the latest addition to the park’s An Old Time Christmas celebration. The four-story-tall tree was grown in Oregon and traveled across the country before finding its home for the holidays in The Plaza at SDC.
Adorned with over 30,000 colorful twinkling lights and surrounded by four large illuminated angels, a special tree lighting ceremony is held three times each night — 5 p.m., 6:30 p.m., and 7:30 p.m. (check the park’s schedule or mobile app for exact times).
The 20-minute ceremony includes a live band performing several Christmas favorites before leading the crowd in a countdown to the lighting.
SEE ALSO: Ultimate Guide to Christmas at Silver Dollar City
This is the first time The Plaza is open during the Christmas season, as the space was only utilized during the Harvest Festival in prior years. It’s located in the Northeast section of the park, with entrances by Fire in the Hole, Boatworks Theater, and at the end of the Grand Exposition.
Rudolph’s Holly Jolly Christmas Light Parade also originates from The Plaza at 6 and 8 p.m., so it’s possible to catch both the 5:30 tree lighting and 6:00 parade from the same spot.
And to rest any worries: SDC’s iconic eight-story animated tree near the park’s entrance — part of Joy on Town Square — is still there, featuring light shows choreographed to music every 15 minutes from 5:30 p.m. to park close.
SEE ALSO: Branson Christmas Attractions & Activities
Finding The Fir
Grand Fir trees are native to the Pacific Northwest, and that’s where Kelly Eutsler, Silver Dollar City’s visual design manager, went this spring on a tree-finding mission.
An Oregon native herself, Eutsler has fond memories of trekking through snowy woods with her family each Christmas to find the perfect tree.
“There’s just something different about a real tree,” she said in an Ozarkly article. “The scent, the texture…it brings people back to childhood. Back to a moment when everything felt calm, and bright and full of hope.”
After consulting with the National Christmas Tree Association, she made her way to a family Christmas tree farm owned by George and Jill Jones. It wasn’t long before she laid eyes on the one: a 30-year-old, 44-foot White Shasta Fir.
SEE ALSO: 10 things you must see and do during “An Old Time Christmas” at Silver Dollar City
Photo courtesy Brandei Clifton/Silver Dollar City
The tree was cut, loaded by crane, and transported across the U.S. on a flat bed truck. It made its grand arrival in the Ozarks — complete with a parade to celebrate — in late October. After erecting the tree in The Plaza on a custom steel base, the park’s team got to work stringing hundreds of feet of lights. And because fresh cut trees require plenty of water, it’s fed about 36 gallons of water every day!
“I knew this tree when she was still standing on a snowy mountain in Oregon,” said Eutsler. “I was in awe, thoughtfully touching her branches. She’ll be all grown up and glowing when she’s here. All the hours and heart we’ve poured into this tree… it’s going to be special.”
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