Tree's Lights Will Shine Alike

The lights that have sparkled on the nearly 50-foot tree at God's Acre are a twinkling reminder that the holidays are here.

And though the tree at God's Acre is dressed in lights year round, it was not until the moment when the flip was switched that those 1,000 little bulbs were awakened from their long hibernation. 

Voila! – our own little Rockefeller tree burns brightly once again and send New Canaanite's bustling around town like bees in preparation for another holiday season.

But this year, what to our wondering eyes should appear? A tree at God's Acre with miss-matched lights, I fear.

"That night, someone went and turned them on and we were like, uh-oh," Tucker Murphy, executive director of the Chamber of Commerce, said.

The reason for this year's clashing bulbs is simple—and, ironically, the result will be a far greener tree.

Because the lights stay on the tree throughout the year, Recreation Director Steve Benko said he had replaced some of the strands of lights at the top of the tree since they had begun to deteriorate. 

"We tried to put some new lights on the top [of the tree] and realized that those lights were like, 10 times brighter," Benko said.

The five new strands that were strung around the top of the tree are LED lights – using far more energy efficient bulbs than the rest of the lights, which are incandescent.  The tree's five strands of LED lights use 500 watts of electricity, versus five strands of incandescents, which use about 3500.

This means saving nearly 90 percent in energy costs.

Benko said he put in an order for enough LED lights to dress the entire tree, and hopes that by Monday the tree will not only look more beautiful but be a little greener, too.