Orlando brings iconic star into the future

it and say

The star, with history dating back five decades, is among Central Florida’s most visible holiday attractions, with potentially millions of drivers passing underneath it annually.

It was first hung between competing department stores Ivey’s and Dickson & Ives on opposite sides of Orange Avenue in the 1950s.

Later, Kazansas, who died in 2010, raised $13,000 to replace the aged star in 1984, and in 1998 he again campaigned to restore it.

He worked at Golfweek magazine and also as a fundraiser for what is now Valencia College. He’d wear an elf ’s cap and bring breakfast and coffee for the crews who hung the star, and sometimes he’d play Christmas music.

Many of the parts replaced in the recent renovations to the 440-pound star dated back to the 1984 project.

“Over the years we’ve had to do a lot of work just to get the star restored to the point of getting it back up,” Dunn said. “A lot of the technology was old and the acrylic…was deteriorating — it was brittle, it was cracking. We didn’t want to have it up there and have pieces fall off of it.”

In nearby Winter Park, the city will return to its traditional Christmas past complete with a real tree.

After Hurricane Irma helped retire its longtime tree, which was decorated and celebrated for years in Central Park, Winter Park officials pivoted to a gaudy digital tree so the ‘has that been there before?’” tradition could continue.

That “tree,” also placed in Central Park, was panned by some residents who at the time said it was more fitting for Las Vegas.

However, last January the city found the perfect replacement: A 20-foot Southern red cedar tree, which was planted south of Central Boulevard. The 10-year-old tree was grown at a nursery in North Florida, selected due to its size and low-hanging limbs.

“It is a considerably smaller tree than our former tree that retired last year, so the decorations and lighting will be much different purely because of the size,” Winter Park spokeswoman Clarissa Howard said. “But you can expect a beautifully, traditionallydecorated tree once again.”

The tree will be lit Dec. 7 during the city’s traditional Winter on the Avenue celebration.

In Orlando, a portion of Orange Avenue from Central Boulevard to Pine Street will close at 7 a.m Sunday for the raising of the star and will be fully opened around noon.

“The public is going to be surprised, I think, when they see it,” Dunn said. “But I think they’ll also be amazed by it.”