See this story at BrooklynDaily.com.
By Colin Mixson
Brooklyn Daily
Call it the little tree that could.
Hurricane Sandy toppled most of the trees outside the John Malone Community Center, so the pickings were slim for Millennium Development’s annual Christmas tree lighting ceremony on Saturday — but the sturdy non-profit did its best with a tree too threadbare to catch the wind.
“It was a little scraggly looking,” said Millennium Development worker Caitlin Dasaro, speaking about the scrappy pine, “but we made it work.”
Audience members said the pine was the spitting image of the showcased spruce in “A Charlie Brown’s Christmas” — right down to the hardwood’s iconic tilt.
“It looked exactly like the Charlie Brown Christmas tree, it was on a tilt, just like the movie,” said Gina Young, a Bergen Beach resident who brought her daughter Daniella to the lighting ceremony.
Yet the gawky pine was made brilliant after Millennium flipped the light switch and Santa Claus ditched his one-horse open sleigh for a big, red fire truck so he could entertain area kids with colorfully wrapped presents and his boisterous, trademark “Ho, ho, ho.”
“The kids had a lot of fun,” said Young. “We would do it next year, it was perfect.”
Reach reporter Colin MIxson at cmixson@cnglocal.com or by calling (718) 260-4514.