Baker City considers spruce tree in Old Post Office Square for Christmas tree

Baker City officials were weighing whether a spruce in Old Post Office Square could become the city’s community Christmas tree, a choice that would let the city use an existing 30-foot tree instead of bringing in and installing a separate holiday tree later in the year. The idea is centered on practicality: less cost, less equipment, and one more visible use for a downtown space that already carries civic weight.

Old Post Office Square was once the center of Baker City, and the Oregon Trail Monument was once its hub. The Old Post Office building served as the city’s post office for 58 years, from 1910 until 1968, and the building was restored for law offices in 1982. That history has helped keep the square prominent in the city’s public life, even as the traffic pattern changed about 15 years ago when the monument was moved from the middle of the square.

The holiday tree discussion also reaches into a longstanding downtown tradition. Baker County Chamber of Commerce materials describe the community tree lighting as part of the annual Twilight Parade and Twilight Jubilee holiday weekend, typically on the first weekend in December and often beginning at 5 p.m. Baker City Downtown says Twinkle in Time started in 2023 and includes the Twilight Parade and tree lighting in Court Street Plaza as Baker’s kickoff to the holiday season.

The city already has a recent example of how much presentation can go into that tradition. Baker City Downtown said the 2025 holiday tree at Court Plaza included warm white lights, gold and silver ornaments, and a lighted topper purchased with a city transient lodging tax grant. A spruce already standing in Old Post Office Square would avoid another purchase and installation, but the city has not said what trimming, lighting, or other work would be needed before it could safely serve as the centerpiece.

No final decision had been announced, and no council vote or public reaction from nearby residents or businesses had been laid out. Even so, the proposal points to a familiar Baker City calculation: how to keep downtown active and festive while spending carefully, especially in a square that has long carried more than one season’s worth of civic meaning.