The annual gift of an evergreen Christmas tree from Nova Scotia is scheduled to arrive by police escort at Boston Common at approximately 11 a.m. on Tuesday, November 22.
This is the 51st year that a tree has been donated and commemorates 105 years of friendship with Nova Scotia after the people of Boston provided emergency assistance when Halifax, Nova Scotia’s capital, was devastated by a maritime munitions explosion in the harbor in 1917. The first Tree for Boston was donated in 1971 by Joseph Slauenwhite from Lunenburg County.
Boston’s official 2022 tree is a 45-foot white spruce donated by landowner Roddy Townsend of Christmas Island, along with his children Angela, Carmen, and Andrew.
“How appropriate that this year’s tree comes from Christmas Island,” said Boston Parks and Recreation Commissioner Ryan Woods. “For 51 years the province of Nova Scotia has provided this festive gift, a symbol that our bond endures and testimony to the resilience of their citizens in the face of disaster and the generosity of our own city in a time of need.”
A public tree-cutting ceremony will be held November 16 on the Townsend family’s property on Christmas Island, Cape Breton. Carmen Townsend, an award-winning musician, will perform a song she has written about the Tree for Boston, and a local Mi’Kmaq elder will conduct a smudging ceremony before the tree is cut. The tree will leave Halifax for Boston on November 21.