12/05/1968
El Paso Natural Gas Company’s traditional salute to the Christmas season will be on display starting Dec. 15, it was announced today.
Annually since 1955, the firm has outlined a giant cross with lights in the windows on the east side of its 16-story Main Office Building at Stanton and Texas streets. And since 1966, a 55-foot musical, “living” Christmas tree has stood on the northeast corner of the same building.
Employes will be setting up the decorations about the middle of next week.
The cross, which is visible from the air for as much as 100 miles, will stretch from the fourth to the sixteenth floors of the Main Office Building. It is created with 103 neon light fixtures, each contain three lighting tubes. The fixtures are placed in 49 windows to form a cross measuring 159 feet high and 72 feet wide. The lights consume some 12,240 watts of power.
The tree has an unusual lighting system which coordinated the colors and degrees of brightness of the tree’s 1200 lights with the musical notes of traditional Christmas songs and Carols. Because the lights are continually changing colors and intensity the tree becomes a multicolored, vibrant tribute to Christmas.
Through an electronic control, the lights “dance” with the music. Bass notes turn the lights blue; mid-range notes change the color green; and treble notes bring out red.
The tree has approximately 400 transparent, six-inch “glowberries,” each containing a red, blue and green light. A green, glass sprinkled garland has white berries, and a white star crowns the tip of the tree.
The tree will be turned on from dark to midnight, but the cross will glow 24 hours a day, company officials said.
I wish they'd still do this. But we all know such a thing will never happen again.
Posted by: Michael | November 30, 2011 at 01:28 PM