There’s five months and six days left till Christmas, as Eric Michaels, the LDDA’s marketing and events director, reminded the agency’s board members.
Last year, the Lakeland Downtown Development Authority put a 34-foot Christmas tree in Munn Park with more than 25,000 lights. It fulfilled a long-standing community wish to see a tree in Munn Park.
“It sounds like we should go with a bigger tree,” said Landon Beck, chair of the LDDA’s board of directors and managing principal of Aspyre Brokerage.
And so they will.
The LDDA board decided at its July 16 meeting that bigger is better, with plans to rent a larger 40-foot tree this year. It will cost an additional $12,000, according to Michaels, on top of the roughly $32,400 negotiated rate for the 34-foot tree and surrounding fencing assembled last year.
That’s a cost of roughly $2,000 per additional foot of Christmas tree.
“You can’t put a price on Christmas,” said Jeff Donalson, an LDDA director and co-founder of Thomas Capital Partners.
The 40-foot tree, if combined with the same 42-inch tall Christmas tree topper, would bring the installation’s total height to over 43-feet. Beck noted that’s still shorter than the City of Lakeland’s official Christmas tree stationed by Fire Station One off Lake Mirror.
Both trees will be installed shortly before Thanksgiving, lit on Thanksgiving Day and remain up through early January 2027.
LDDA Director Eric “Bro” Belvin, managing partner for Linksters, Paddywagon and Central Tavern, was the only vote against the larger Christmas tree as he preferred to make sure the LDDA would still make a portable bathroom trailer available to downtown guests during the holiday light display.
The cost of the luxury bathroom trailer, including a generator to operate the lights, regular pumping and supplies, will be $6,200, according to Michaels. In 2025, it’s estimated the trailer had approximately 503 users over the course of 39 days.
That cost doesn’t include the wages of the LDDA’s safety ambassadors, who were working the holiday light displays and ensuring the bathrooms remained usable, bringing the total costs to about $10,800.
Belvin said he thinks the LDDA needs stronger signage indicating the availability of public restrooms this holiday season.
“Many people had no idea it was there,” he said. “People were still coming into the bar trying to use the bathroom.”
It created problems for his bar, where people were trying to use bathrooms with their children and it is not a kid-friendly business.
This article originally appeared on The Ledger: LDDA decides bigger is better with Munn Park Christmas tree
Reporting by Sara-Megan Walsh, Lakeland Ledger / The Ledger
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Sara-Megan Walsh, Lakeland Ledger | USA TODAY Network
