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The annual State House Christmas tree lighting is today at 5 p.m. The event will take place on the State House lawn and is open to the general public.
The 41-foot tall spruce blue spruce was donated by the W.M. Group in Moretown and was previously located on Route 2 near the Moretown landfill. It will now be on display throughout the holiday season at the Vermont State House.
We had a story in Dec. 3 edition about Gov. Phil Scott’s visit to Martin’s Farm in Corinth last week to select this year’s Christmas trees for the Pavilion Building in Montpelier.
At 4 p.m., before the tree lighting, there will be performances by the Cirque de Fuego fire dancers and Shidaa West African Drumming with appearances by Rudolph the VTrans plow truck and animals, including Secretary of Agriculture Anson Tebbetts’ miniature donkey, Frannie.
Following the ceremony, light refreshments and cookies will be served inside the State House, around the indoor Victorian Christmas tree adorned with lights and handmade ornaments decorated by the Friends of the Vermont State House.
Scott will read “The Night Before Christmas” for the children who gather there.
Brattleboro man dies in Ukraine war
WTSA, the Brattleboro area radio station, reports today that the 33-year-old Vermonter who lost his life while serving as a medic in Ukraine was identified as Andrew David Mario from Brattleboro.
He passed away on December 3, 2025, in the Donetsk region of Ukraine. At the time of his death, Mario was providing assistance to an international brigade of the Ukrainian National Guard. His parents characterized him in his obituary as “deeply compassionate, with a lively curiosity… and a fiery passion for social justice.”
Before his service in Ukraine, Mario engaged in humanitarian efforts that included volunteering at a shelter in Brattleboro, supporting pipeline protesters in North Dakota, and working at research stations in Antarctica. Reports indicate that his death marks the first casualty from Vermont in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict. His family intends to organize a memorial service in the spring.
Mario’s death also was reported Dec. 8 by VTDigger.
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Categories: SHORTS
Headline fixed:
Annual State House Communist tree lighting today
Bennington called. The event is offensive.
What the Capital is lighting is a “holiday tree”.
What the f that ever was or is……..
Even my Jewish friends acknowledge the proper name of that tree, even if they don’t believe in the virgin Mary. After all, that tree resembles another tree [or bush] of which we are not in disagreement about. We [Christians and Jews] have come to be at peace, and agree to disagree. Even to love one another, after forgiveness, if such a god exists.
But this…this is perhaps the 5th level. Call it communism if you like, but Dantes wrote about these levels: I think of it as “Stripped away from the knowledge of God; chastised”, but he wrote “The fifth circle, the swamp of the Styx, is dedicated to the wrathful and sullen, who are either engaged in violent combat on the surface or submerged in silence beneath the mud”
How appropriate for Vermont, the land of mud and rock, to be so challenged by flat-landers. And if I get to “offensive”, you can please try to warn me. Por favor, but by then it will be too late.
Sorry I missed the tree lighting, but I just saw your message after coming back from birthday/Christmas shopping.
I went to the State tree lighting in 2021 and attended a well organized candle vigil to raise awareness about the harms of the masking / closure mandates. The vigil took place before and during the lighting. I brought my daughter (12/13yo at the time), and broke away from the vigil carrying our candles to watch the tree lighting. My glove still has candle wax on it 😉
But maybe I’m not sorry about missing this one, after reading the itinerary. It seems like the organizers are going out of their way to celebrate anything but the true meaning of Christmas. But hey, who doesn’t like good entertainment?
It’s just…I dunno. Everyone knows Blue Spruce is a fine tree, but it’s not native and was an ornamental hybrid imported from down south. Native Vermont tradition was caroling, manger displays, church gatherings, hot apple cider. And Balsam wreath making, the circle representing God’s eternal love. If the Balsam isn’t native to Vermont, it’s been here as many generations as can be counted. And I see it growing naturally in the woods, on top of mountains even, far away from agricultural lands. There is also a Balsam that grows in Europe.
Did anyone go to the tree lighting this year? How was it?
As far as the brave man who died in Ukraine, my sincere condolences to his family. He did the right thing in trying to help, I believe, and no amount of Russian propaganda is going to make me think the invasion(s) were justified. The UK PM Starmer said it right: it’s barbaric. We can only pray that madness can be contained, but I suggest we prepare for the worst. Which brings us to Venezuelan…they may have been exporting drugs to USA, but what Maduro imported is of grave concern.