(steady music) - The tree lighting tradition started at Campus Martius Park 21 years ago.

It began really as a small gathering of 2,000 folks, and it's evolved now in 2024 to be a massive weekend festival.

- [Bill] Another December weekend downtown packed.

- [David] Throughout the holiday season, over 2 million people was at Campus Martius Park.

Just the whole atmosphere has become a must-visit throughout the holidays.

- [Bill] And that tree, brought to you by the Downtown Detroit Partnership and the DTE Foundation, around 60 feet tall.

One Detroit's got the story about how it got here.

It starts 220 miles to the north, Manton, Michigan near Cadillac, home of the Dutchman Tree Farms, where we meet Martin Emery.

- When I was 12 years old, I grew up across the street from this farm.

I started helping out after school and it stuck and I never left.

- [Bill] Emery does a bit of everything, and he's in charge of finding the perfect Campus Martius Christmas tree every year.

A search that takes him far and wide, but this year, he found one right next to the Dutchman Farms at the home of Tiffany Kenyon, Devin Collins, and their son also named Devin.

- You know, it's a 60-year-old tree.

- [Bill] Trees like this grow about a foot a year.

The tree top had already been wrapped for transit when we arrived - Last year, somebody else came and looked at it, but then they decided not to get it.

- I drove by it for years, and you know, watched it grow obviously, you know, over 40 years.

And finally, it reached the height that we could use.

- Already stopped by the summer here, and he just said he noticed it from the roadside.

I guess he was out and about looking for Norway spruce, and so he pulled in the driveway.

We happened to be outside and he asked us if we'd be interested in selling it.

- We work out a deal.

Yeah, yeah.

- I can let it go for the right price, I guess, so... - To me, a proportionate tree is half as wide as tall.

Nice taper, you know, even.

Nice top.

That's really the perfect tree for me.

- We always have criteria that we try to point out, and one is that it's got a single, very strong trunk.

The second is that the branches are pointing upward, which means that they're healthy and stable enough to support the weight of all these lights.

- [Bill] The three leading states growing Christmas trees, Oregon, North Carolina, and Michigan, part of agricultural history in Missaukee and Wexford Counties.

But why here?

- The climate, for one thing, you know, the hilly terrain and sandy soil is very good for growing Christmas trees.

This is 70-year-old plantation, maybe older.

Every year, we expand just a little bit more.

- [Bill] Dutchman ships hundreds of thousands of trees each year.

- [David] Those were big with Lowe's and Home Depot are like two of our best customers.

We used to put 'em in shipping containers and send 'em to Bermuda.

I think one time, we may have sent 'em to Panama one time.

- [Bill] It's October, harvest time has begun.

Douglas firs, Fraser firs, spruces and pines.

Keith Helsel has been in the Christmas tree business 45 years.

- Everything goes in a cycle, just like life.

Now everybody wants Scotch pine, and everybody's cut back and hasn't grown them.

(laughs) - [Bill] So what do you do about that?

- Try to plant more Scotch.

- [Bill] These are balsam firs, also a favorite now.

And what makes 'em popular?

- The smell.

The smell.

- [Bill] Can you describe the smell?

- Like a tangerine.

(Keith laughs) To me, I mean that's what it smells like, is a tangerine.

- [Bill] Tangerine like they grow in Florida?

Thanks to these trees, Helsel spends much of December warm in the Sunshine State.

- I run three tree lots for Dutchman in Florida, and the market down there is strong.

Yeah, we can't hardly get enough trees, but everybody wants a big tree.

Seems like everybody wants a nine to like 15-foot tree.

- Two gallon, I would say.

- [Bill] At Dutchman, they also have smaller, keep-growing-your-own trees.

- Take this tree home, and you could put it right in your living room, just like that and decorate it.

And when Christmas is over, you could plant it right in your yard.

- [Bill] Is that people doing a lot of that now?

- Oh yeah, yeah.

- [Bill] Indoor work at Dutchman too, a Christmas wreath and garland assembly line, and trees that fit in the trunk of your car.

Maybe take home with you.

Back to the big tree headed for Campus Martius.

Dillon Lykins up there, tying tree limbs while the pickup truck down below pulls a rope to winch them tight.

Lykins, not bothered by heights.

- I could see like four sets of valleys that way.

It's beautiful up there.

It really is, it's pretty neat.

- All right.

- As the tree's prepped for travel, more Christmas tree specialists have arrived.

Another tree has been selected to help fill out the Campus Martius display.

- They'll take another tree, a sacrificial tree, and they'll take all the branches off it, and then they will fit them branches into the other tree to make it, you know, super full, I guess you could say.

- [Bill] How does that work?

Kind of a trade secret.

A drizzly November 5th, crane on sight.

First, a ride up top to lasso the beast.

Some ceremonial chops, then onto business.

(chainsaw buzzing) Today's harvest, that one big tree.

(tool clacking) (truck engine revs) Destination, Detroit.

An eye-catching payload.

- Oh yeah, you get a lot of people looking, but the one you don't want looking is the state DOT.

We don't need him looking at us.

You're not supposed to be anything over the edge of the trailer.

- We're permitted though.

We have a permit, yes.

- But we're permitted.

We're completely legal.

- [Kelly] Yes.

- Let's introduce you to this year's Michigan-grown Norway spruce, hailing from the Christmas tree capital of the world, Manton, Michigan.

Over the next two weeks, will be installed and decorated by a crew of 10 experts, and adorn it with more than 25,000 LED lights, hundreds of oversized ornaments, and a seven-foot star on the top.

(upbeat music) - [Bill] Late November, the festivities commence.

Despite peak season up north for the first time, Martin Emery has gotten away to see what's become of what he started.

- It is like Times Square here, you know.

It's a big thing.

- Four, three, two, one!

(crowd cheers) - Yeah, you know, it really turned out great.

You know, this is awesome, you know, I'm honored.

You know, people of Detroit, state of Michigan, I couldn't be happier.

What the world always needs is a real Christmas tree, and that's as real as it gets.

♪ And Heaven and nature sing ♪ He rules the world with the truth and grace ♪