Austin Energy kicks off 59th Zilker Holiday Tree installation

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Austin Energy started its work Tuesday morning to transform the moonlight tower in Zilker Park into the Zilker Holiday Tree for the 59th year.

The Zilker Holiday Tree has become a tradition for the community, per a news release from Austin Energy. The tree is installed around the moonlight tower, which is “one of the original 31 towers that provided the City of Austin with its first urban lighting system in 1895.”

“Only 17 of Austin’s original moonlight towers remain and serve as the only working moonlight towers in the world,” Austin Energy said in the release.

Crews with Austin Energy will string the 155-foot-tall tree with 39 strings, each with 81 LED bulbs, according to Clint Correll with Austin Energy. Additionally, he said two stars, each with 100 bulbs, installed at the top of the tree first.

Correll said it’s “a good feeling” to be apart of the annual installation of the tree.

“To me, it’s a good community event. It brings people from all walks of life together,” he said. “Once the tree’s lit, you can come up here and see people from all over the state, the world. It’s just people come together, everybody seems happy and it’s just a great community event that Austin Energy should be proud to be apart of and we’re all proud of what we do out here.”

Correll said the lighting of the Zilker Holiday Tree happens after Thanksgiving every year and stays up into the new year.

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