The Christmas tree on top of the old Purina plant might be seeing its last year. The plant is closing and with it could come the end of a holiday staple in Woodstock.
WOODSTOCK - This could be the last year for a piece of holiday history here in Woodstock.
Lots of people in the area are familiar with the Christmas tree on top of the old Purina plant building on Main Street.
City Councillor Liz Wismer-Van Meer's grandfather Earl Wismer started the tradition back when he worked at Purina in the maintenance department back in the 1950s. She says the company had a place where people could submit their suggestions for management, and that's when the idea hit him.
"Anyone that knows my Gejoe knows that he absolutely loved Christmas. He went all out with the biggest tree he could find because he loved the holiday season, so he wanted to take that to a higher level."
Management signed off on it, and Wismer was the one to first put the tree up with strings of coloured Christmas lights. Wismer eventually had to leave Purina due to medical reasons, and the remaining maintenance took care of the tree from there. Earl passed away in 2001 and today (December 13th, 2023) would have been his 108th birthday.
The tree has remained on top of the building for the past 70 years, even when Cargill took over, but it's future is now uncertain since Cargill announced it was shutting down the plant earlier this year. Wismer-Van Meer says the tree has been lit for almost every year since then, but now with white Christmas lights.
Wismer-Van Meer is doing what she can to try to save the three, but nothing is set in stone.
"I can say that I have been speaking with a few City staff and we are going to try to do the best we can to see if we can have that moved. There is no promises by any means, but we will see what we can do to keep that history alive."
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