Christmas Tree on the Bluff Began as Prank / Norman Rockwell Moment to the Grinch that Stole Christmas

To most Pacific residents the Lion’s Club Christmas tree on the bluff heralds the beginning of the holiday season. But what most resident probably don’t know is that the annual tradition started out as prank.

A lighted and decorated town Christmas tree was first installed against a small light standard in the center of First and St. Louis streets, which locals called, the square, in 1931.

It was Johnny Faszold’s idea. Johnny loved Christmas. That was the year he adorned his hauling business ad in the Pacific Plowman newspaper, with an elaborate drawing of a Christmas tree.  

And, he knew how to work a crowd. The most popular group in town was the new Lions Club that had recently created the first public works project in Pacific. The Lions offered out-of-work men the thing they prized most – work. To earn $2 a week the men were put to work on civic projects.

When Johnny asked the Lions to sponsor a town Christmas tree they signed on. His friend Nick Olmstead agreed to string lights on the tree and tap into the light standard in the square. 

Johnny, Chub and Barney Faszold, Joe Mohrback, Russell Kruger, Russell Parish, Art Leber, George Hirth, Adam Brandt and Abbie Tiemann went to the August Merk farm west of Pacific and cut a splendid cedar tree and hauled it into town. Local boys were recruited to help decorate it tree.

By the time Santa Claus arrived on Christmas Eve, 50 businesses had subscribed to the Lions Club Christmas tree program, and raised $51 to buy gifts for Santa to hand out to small children.

The charming affair was a holiday scene straight out of a Norman Rockwell painting. Surely it would go on forever.

But, no. Only two years later, on December 20, 1933 only days after the tree was installed, shoppers and business owners stared in shock at the empty light standard. The town tree was gone. The Normal Rockwell scene had morphed into the Grinch that stole Christmas. Who in the world would steal something as precious as the town Christmas tree? 

After milling around the intersection for several painful minutes, someone in the confused crowd glanced up at the bluff and spotted the tree on top. There it was, decorations and all.

As they considered how to go up and retrieve it, someone said, “Hey, it’s beautiful up there. Maybe we should just leave it there.”

Curiosity over who pulled off the prank faded. Certainly, no one suspected that the real culprit was Johnny Faszold, the guy who had clamored for a live Christmas tree in the first place. 

Johnny was a popular guy. He and his brothers Chub and Barney, were semi famous. They were cracker jack baseball players who led the Pacific team to a string of victories. They operated a general hauling business and won the admiration of local businesses by starting a daily shipping route to downtown St. Louis in 1929.

Once the decision was made to keep the tree on the bluff the Lions agreed to put up the tree each year, with one they caveat, they needed a bigger tree.

Through the rest of the 1930s and earl 1940s, on the first Saturday in December, a group of Lions would drive out to the farm of a generous donor and cut down the largest evergreen they could find. As they hauled it back through town, a parade of young boys trailed the procession to the top of the bluff.

It wasn’t just the town boys who looked forward to the tree. At the end of day it was installed, and lit by a reluctant but willing Nick Olmstead, families gathered at the base of the bluff and sang Christmas Carols.

The local newspaper editor was ecstatic, The Pacific Transcript banner headline read: “CHRISTMAS TREE ON SAND MOUNTAIN MAKES A PRETTY SIGHT.”

The editor gushed that in the eyes of the people of the surrounding community the most picturesque sight to be found along the highway between Pacific and St. Louis is the community Christmas tree upon the top of the famous sand hill of Pacific.

As the Lions Club activities were curtailed during World War II, the remaining members decided to forego the live tree and create a tree silhouet by stringing lines of colored lights up a flag pole.

This year on Sunday, November 21, about  a dozen volunteers, directed by perennial Christmas Tree chair Henry Hahn and a volunteer crew raised 14 strands of lights up the 28-foot pole. A five point light star, six feet across, topped the string of lights.

There are eight colored bulbs on each of the 14 strands – a total of 46 red lights and 66 blue – to create the silhouet. The star has a total of 325 colored lights, 75 white, 100 gold and 150 white filled the star

At the top of the star the tree stand 34 feet over the bluff, 134 feet over Osage Street and 178 feet over St. Louis Street. It is 648 feet above mean sea level.

Chatting at a public event some years back, Joe McHugh and Chub Faszold told me the story of moving the tree. On a cold December morning in 1933, Johnny Faszold and Joe McHugh untied the tree from the light standard, hauled it up to Blackburn Park and propped it up near the edge so it would be visible from the street below. They never dreamed it would holiday tradition.

The Pacific Lions Club, encouraged by the success of its Great Depression works program, would spend the next 90 years in community service. During World War II, the club contributed $800 to help the town organize a volunteer fire department, donated  $100 for repairs for the American Legion Post, $25 for instruments for the Pacific Band, and with its remaining funds sent $87 worth of cigarettes to Pacific men deployed for the war.

In the 1960’s when the school started testing the vision of students, Pacific Lions bought eyeglasses for Robertsville kids who needed glasses. It was the beginning of a program to provide testing and glasses to anyone in the community who needed them, which is still a primary role of the Lions Club.