The City of Bethlehem holiday trees and lights program is the project of the city's electrical bureau and headed by electrician Greg Cryder. The work is done by four city employees, electricians and technicians, using two trucks. Their tasks begin in September, when Cryder and a foreman start searching for the two largest trees of the more than 800 small and about 40 to 50 medium- to large-size trees that will be used for city decorating.

Some of the largest trees are donated. The smaller trees are purchased via the Citizens Christmas Committee fund-raising Christmas City seals program and public and private donations. Some of previous year's trees were purchased from a local tree farm.

Once purchased, the trees are placed at a rate of 24 per day to the light poles and street signals. Those units are not one, but two or more tree sections which are lashed together before a person in a bucket is raised to the lamp post level to attach the "trees" and add the lights.

One of the two larger trees will be located at the City Center, Payrow Plaza, between City Hall and the Bethlehem Area Public Library's 11 w. Church St. branch. This, and other North Side Bethlehem trees, are decorated in white to represent the unity and purity of Christ.

Its counterpart stands along the southern end of the Hill to Hill bridge near the Cathedral Church of the Nativity at Wyandotte and Third streets. This and other trees on the Southside of Bethlehem, use colored LED lights to signify the Southside's diversity.

Festivities, including the annual tree lighting ceremony, begin at 4 p.m. the day after Thanksgiving, which is Nov. 29 this year. Lights on all the trees are turned on simultaneouosly via interconnected timers.

In addition to the purchasing and placing the trees, the department is responsible for the five sets of Advent candles located along the bridges, about four dozen "halos" for the light poles, the Star of Bethlehem and its 250 LED lights (displayed dusk to midnight year round) and the removal of all the trees and lights in January.

Once the holiday season ends, the trees are dismantled, usually at a rate of more than three dozen per day, and recycled. The larger trees are cut into pieces before transporting the pieces to the city recycling center.