Modern science has mixed with Christmas magic to safeguard the legacy of a 100-year-old holiday tradition in Fresno, California.
The story of Christmas Tree Lane began in 1920 as a way to transform a family tragedy into something much brighter.
According to a historical marker, in June of 1919, 14-year-old William “Billy” Winning died on his family’s half-acre homestead in a tragic machinery accident. In memory of him, Billy’s mother, Mae, decorated a deodar cedar tree in front of the family’s two-story home to honor the boy who always loved Christmas.
The tribute quickly gained considerable attention in an era when few families could afford to decorate with electric lights. As the years passed, other neighbors near the home on Van Ness Boulevard also decorated trees outside their homes in a sign of solidarity and support.
And the movement kept growing. By the 1920s, the number of decorated homes had reached 17 and in the 1930s —with the Great Depression still raging—the abundance of displays had earned the two-mile stretch a nickname: “Christmas Tree Lane.”
Today, it attracts 100,000 visitors each year and continues to receive consistent support from community donations. (See the video below that shows the lights display…)
However, in recent years, concern started growing on Christmas Tree Lane. The original tree, decorated in honor of Billy Winning, looked sickly.
The new homeowners kept nurturing the tree as best they could, but something more drastic had to be done. It wasn’t going to make it on its own.
“Three or four years ago we recognized that one of the original trees on Christmas Tree Lane was dying,” Jon Reelhorn, owner of Belmont Nursery told KMPH-TV News in an interview.
The folks at the nursery were asked, ‘can we clone the tree’.
That’s when modern science and the Christmas spirit came together. Cuttings from the original tree were sent to a drafter in Oregon who offered to make a clone of the memorial cedar for free.
Eighty small genetic clones were created from the original tree’s profile. Those saplings were then carefully grown in pots, cared for over the next 3-4 years by the Belmont Nursery in Fresno.
“We are honored to be part of preserving this beautiful piece of our community’s history,” Belmont Nursery said in a Facebook post this year.
The nursery then delivered the cloned cedar saplings to their new home on Christmas Tree Lane, which is managed by the Fig Garden Homeowners Association.
The roots will all be different but, otherwise, the trees will be genetically identical to the one that started it all, a perfect tribute to the tradition that has brought Christmas cheer to so many for over a century.
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The Fig Garden Association coordinates the massive light displays and decorations that have made the neighborhood nationally-renowned as one of the first and most impressive such displays in the US. Their video below shows how the Lane comes alive during Christmas every year.
The memorial magic is now in its 103rd year—and will keep growing far into the future.
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