South Coast Plaza tree lights up holiday season

For the 33rd year, South Coast Plaza began the holiday season Thursday night by lighting a giant Christmas tree.

The 96-foot white fir from Mount Shasta rolled into Costa Mesa on Oct. 14 and was placed in Town Center Park near the Westin hotel, across Bristol Street from the mall. The tree is placed in the park because the family of South Coast Plaza co-founder Henry Segerstrom didn’t want people to view the tree as commercialization of the holiday.

It took workers a month to line the tree with hundreds of power cables for 20,000 multicolored lights.

—Kathleen Luppi