FRESNO, Calif. — It’s beginning to look a lot like . . . any other day. In some cities and towns across America, tight budgets have become a Grinch, forcing drastic cutbacks in the municipal holiday displays and celebrations that people have enjoyed for generations.
“It’s just so sad. Why not put a little holiday spirit into us?” said Joan Wilson, a part-time receptionist, bemoaning the decision in Fresno to forgo the rite of December in which thousands of residents gather for the lighting of a six-story tree from the nearby mountains.
In Chicago, the $350,000, 56-foot blue spruce in Daley Plaza would be dwarfed by last year’s tree, which stood 90 feet tall and cost more than $1 million.
The tree at the South Carolina Statehouse is 6 feet shorter than in the past, competing in stature with the Confederate soldiers monument on the capitol’s front lawn.
