Starting next week, Galleria Dallas will begin the creation of what has become the most iconic holiday visual in the state of Texas. Setup begins on Sunday, Nov. 6, for the massive evergreen, which has been a fixture at the shopping center since 1984. Standing at a massive 95 feet, the Galleria Dallas Christmas Tree is the tallest indoor holiday tree in the United States.
It takes a team of nearly 50 of Santa’s best elves four days to construct the tree. After the massive steel frame, which weighs five tons, goes up, teams work to install the 1,700 branches, each of which is essentially a 3’ to 5’ tree. Each branch is hand-fluffed three times and the colorful LED lights are tested twice before they are installed by crews who scale the giant structure.
The tree is topped by a 100 pound, 10-foot LED star that was the first of its kind in the United States. When complete, the Galleria Dallas Christmas Tree boasts 450,000 twinkling lights and 10,000 colored ball ornaments.
The tree will be complete by Thursday, Nov. 10 and will stand until Sunday, Jan. 1. A time-lapse video of the 2021 Galleria Dallas Christmas Tree can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mh-BzcvhojU.
However, for most North Texans, the finest visual of the Galleria Dallas Christmas Tree is during the center’s famed Grand Tree Lightings, which occur on Black Friday, Nov. 25 at noon and again on Saturday, Nov. 26 at 6 p.m. These massive free extravaganzas feature national and international figure skating stars accompanying some of the finest local and regional skaters. Nearly 100 students from the Galleria Dallas Ice Skating Center will perform whimsical group numbers. Then, the real celebrity arrives. Missile Toes, Galleria Dallas’ backflipping Santa who shoots fireworks from his skates, officially rings in the holiday season.
The show closes with a countdown and a pyrotechnic spectacle. The fireworks were added to the Grand Tree Lighting shows in 1993 and new features and improvements debut almost every year. But those fireworks require special precautions. For example, the colorful suit worn by Missile Toes took more than five years to develop and requires special flame-retardant protection.
But the Galleria Dallas Christmas Tree provides special holiday memories throughout the season. More skaters ice-skate around the tree than around the one at Rockefeller Center in New York City each season. And each year, many couples decide to pop the question while skating around the special tree. Several times each day, shoppers come to a stop to watch the Illumination Celebration, when the 450,000 LED lights on the tree “dance” in time to specially orchestrated music.
The entire shopping center is bedecked to match the splendor of the Christmas tree. There are 44 palm trees lining Level 3 that are custom wrapped with an additional 50,000 lights. Ten additional Christmas trees (2 36’, 2 12’ and 6 9’ trees) throughout the shopping center are festooned with an additional 40,000 lights.
Outside the center, the 30 trees along the Dallas North Tollway are adorned in 100,000 red LED lights and a grand 36-foot holiday tree outside the Alley is wrapped with 30,000 lights and 2,000 ornaments. The 10 massive palm trees in the Alley are also decorated with 20,000 red lights. New this year, 35-white flocked trees will form an Alley Forest people can use as a backdrop when it snows daily.
Each day during the holiday season, Galleria Dallas hosts amazing free shows and entertainment. A full list of the holiday experiences at Galleria Dallas can be found at www.galleriadallas.com/holiday.
About Galleria Dallas
Galleria Dallas is an iconic shopping center with a unique collection of more than 200 retailers, restaurants and experiences including Nordstrom, Macy’s, the world’s only GAP, Banana Republic and Old Navy combo anchor, a market-exclusive American Girl, the Westin Galleria Dallas Hotel and the signature Galleria Ice Skating Center. Welcoming more than 12 million visitors annually, only Galleria Dallas delivers the consummate Dallas shopping experience. Visit http://www.galleriadallas.com for hours and to learn more about the shopping center. Galleria Dallas is managed by Trademark Property Group, Inc. Galleria Dallas, 13350 Dallas Parkway, Dallas, Texas, 75240.
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