The Community Redevelopment Agency and the Downtown Development Board, along with a little help from the City of Orlando, really stepped up their Christmas light game this year and retired their old decorations that had been clinging to life for the past 20 years.
For the two previous years, the City and the CRA have slowly been investing in public holiday lighting. In 2017 the budget for lights was $197,858 and this year the budget was meant to be $182,155. With the bulk of that money going towards the purchase of new snowflake-shaped lighting along high-trafficked corridors like Orange Avenue.
This year though, a decision was made to up the budget another $280,000 for new holiday lights and decor to be installed at Lake Eola. Now that the main installations have been purchased, the City of Orlando estimates that the cost of labor to run the installations should run around $68,000 each year.
The Lake Eola Christmas Tree’s 160,000 animated LED lights and the park’s LED lighting decorations will be powered by solar energy – offset by OUC’s Solar Solutions program.
Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer held a public lighting ceremony of the City of Orlando’s 72-foot Christmas tree at Lake Eola Park’s Washington Plaza on Friday, December 6, 2019.
The lights, including the main Christmas Tree, will be on display through January 5, 2020.
