By LESLIE EIKLEBERRY
Salina Post
Like elves in the final stretch before Christmas, three men from UltraShine Holiday Lights braved the November cold Monday to provide some holiday cheer in downtown Salina.
Surrounded by a myriad of boxes full of Christmas tree branches and ornaments, the three worked to build an 18-foot Christmas tree in Campbell Plaza. The tree will serve as the Salina community Christmas tree and will be officially lit Saturday as a part of Salina Downtown's Holiday Festival and Parade of Lights.
READ: Salina Downtown Holiday Festival, Parade of Lights Saturday
"Salina Downtown Inc. is so excited to have a community Christmas tree in downtown Salina in Campbell Plaza. We are grateful to our community partners, the City of Salina and First Bank Kansas, for helping SDI bring this tree downtown. It certainly was a neighborhood effort and the tree looks perfect!" said Leslie Bishop, Salina Downtown, Inc., executive director.
"Following the Parade of Lights, we will have a tree lighting ceremony with the assistance of Santa Claus and others. Then Don Wagner will perform some live music at the Campbell Plaza stage," she added.
Constructing a tree
With Christmas music wafting through the air and a recently painted mural as a backdrop, the UltraShine "elves" first connected the two-foot tall sections of the tree tower and then began working their way back down with branches and decorations.
Clearly, this was not their first attempt at holiday decorating.
Chris Rios, who owns UltraShine, said the company has been decorating commercial and residential properties for the holidays for approximately eight years and covers an area stretching from Plainville to Great Bend to Inman to near Abilene.
The three-man crew, made up of two firefighters and a Kansas Highway Patrol recruit, custom designs and installs the holiday displays for customers. At the conclusion of the holiday season, they take down the displays and store them for the following holiday season, Rios said. Additionally, the crew does maintenance on the displays as needed.
In the off-season, they do permanent lights on commercial structures and houses, landscape lighting, and wedding and event lighting, Rios said.
An average job usually takes an hour and a half, however, new jobs sometimes take a bit longer.
To find out more about UltraShine Holiday Lights, go to kansaschristmaslights.com.