TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Freedom Plaza Rings In Holiday

ADVERTISEMENT

The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 18, 2008

Updated:

We haven't heard the first notes of "Silent Night" or "Jingle Bells." The halls are not yet decked with boughs of holly. The Thanksgiving turkeys are still frozen, but phrases such as "Tree Lighting Ceremony," "Freedom Carolers" and "auditorium ornaments" are creeping into conversations. Residents are thinking about familiar holiday routines and certain objects that have become a part of the communal life at Freedom Plaza: their traditions.

What is a tradition? If, as the book says, it is a practice carried out in the present that connects the past with the future, then Freedom Plaza can lay claim to several traditions. The oldest involves the Christmas tree occupying the auditorium stage each year. The tree, itself, has been replaced several times, but many of the ornaments on it hung on Freedom Plaza's very first Christmas tree some 20 years ago. They were furnished by residents-to-be at a party which took place in the (then) Model Center, now the Plaza Club; the only building on the property at that time. Some of those ornaments were made especially for that occasion and bear names and dates.

In 1992, the year Freedom Plaza opened, another tradition was born: the tree lighting ceremony. Residents worked for months fashioning delicate hand-crafted ornaments to help fill the 24-foot tree that had been ordered for the atrium. When it was finally decorated, then lit with the words "Let there be light!" they were awestruck and joined in heartily as that initial group of Freedom Carolers sang, "O, Christmas Tree, O, Christmas Tree." Eggnog toasts were then shared and the holidays were considered "officially begun." Some of those ornaments still exist, and that tree-lighting ritual has been repeated every year since: it is, now, a Freedom Plaza tradition.

Over the past few years several other pleasing holiday practices have been repeated and other tree ornaments with special significance have been created; they may give rise to additional traditions.

For now, however, residents and staff are gearing up to prepare for, carry forth - and thoroughly enjoy - our present 2008 Freedom Plaza "traditional" holiday season.

Peggy Burgess is a creative director for Freedom Plaza.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT