There's a tall, slender spruce tree at the end of our street near the woods. It's strung with colored lights from top to bottom and on Christmas Eve (for over 100 years now), neighbors gather in front of it for caroling, readings, and a visit from Santa Claus.
But this year, the tree stood dark. Well, half-dark.
When they checked the lights last month, only the bottom half worked. Emails pinged back and forth between Christmas committee members and new lights were ordered.
When the tree company arrived with their orange bucket truck, they started at the top, unraveling the strands round and round. Once the lights were off the tree, they plugged them in just to check, and to their surprise, they worked!
Then they discovered the true problem – a squirrel had chewed through one of the wires halfway up the tree (fortunately for the squirrel, the lights were unplugged at the time). Everything below that point worked, but everything above did not. But with a little savvy electrical work, they were able to reconnect the strands and light the rest of the tree.
