Diane Novak, a 25-year resident of La Grange had a beautiful Colorado blue spruce in her front yard, towering over her neighbor’s two-story house.

But in recent years, it had grown too close to another tree on her property, prompting her to consider what to do with it.

So she decided to share her beloved tree with the village, offering it to serve as La Grange’s 2025 Holiday Tree.

“It was here when I bought the house and it was very little, at the most maybe 6 to 8 feet tall,” she said late last month as she watched workers from A&B Tree Service trim the tree before cutting it down.

“Gradually, but then it seemed overnight, it got so big and I realized it wasn’t healthy for the tree. This (other) tree’s going into it, it’s listing over this way. The bottom is already into my evergreens.”

Realizing she couldn’t maintain the tree any longer, Novak contacted La Grange Village Hall to see if the village could use it as this year’s Holiday Tree.

While at first village officials weren’t sure they could use the tree, officials later asked if she was still open to giving it up.

“I know I’m doing the right thing for the tree and the village,” she said. “I’m so thrilled that everybody will be able to enjoy the beauty of this tree.”

Having a Holiday Tree donated by a resident is a longstanding tradition in La Grange, so each year Public Works officials scan the village for trees that would be suitable to serve as the holiday tree.

The family of the late Fred McSwine Sr., a former La Grange village employee, donated their 15-foot pine tree for the 2023 official Holiday Tree.

Workers from A&B Tree Service prepare to remove a large blue spruce tree from La Grange resident Diane Novak’s yard to serve as the village’s 2025 Holiday Tree. (Hank Beckman/Pioneer Press)

McSwine was motivated to plant the tree in 1999 in honor of the 12 students and one teacher that perished in the school shooting in Columbine, Colorado.

“A neighbor told me that your dad was so upset when that happened, he told her he was going to get a tree and plant it,” McSwine’s daughter Shirley said then. “He was so upset he didn’t know what to do.”

A 30-foot blue spruce donated by Regina McClinton and Freddie Dickerson became the 2020 Holiday Tree after the village requested it.

Being built in 1903, their Corner Stone House at 140 S. Washington St. is one of the oldest structures in La Grange. It is also one of 172 buildings in Illinois that is LEED certified, according to the U.S. Green Building Council.

In 2019, the Hill family donated their 30-foot blue spruce.

“The day my daughter Wendy was born, my dad planted this tree,” Robin Hill said at the time. “Last year she noted that it was getting a little big for the front yard.”

The Hills were so attached to the tree that they moved it from their previous home on Madison Avenue to where they lived on South Catherine Avenue.

They took pictures of Wendy next to the tree every year on her birthday, and began decorating it with Christmas ornaments when the tree got big enough about 17 years ago.

The lights for the tree will go on at 5 p.m. Dec. 6, when Santa arrives to flip the switch. Other activities that day will include trolley rides, a kiddie petting zoo and letters to Santa at the Stone Avenue Train Station.

Hank Beckman is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press. 

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/01/lagrange-resident-donates-holiday-tree/