Ooh, how do we get a council Christmas tree? some neighbourhoods ask

Dublin City Council has scattered more than 40 Christmas trees across local communities this December.

Tree-lighting ceremonies and other festive events bring neighbourhoods together, says Fianna Fáil Councillor Daryl Barron, chair of the North Central Area Committee. 

The council has tried to out-do itself this year, Barron says.

In Edenmore last weekend, the council held a Christmas event in a sensory garden, for children with autism and special needs, he said by phone on Wednesday.  

“It was all lit up. Santy was there too, in an interactive way. You know, that's what it's about. It's about bringing people together,” he says.

Santa has been doing the rounds elsewhere for Dublin City Council, too. 

He has magicked to plenty of events – including to Le Chéile Community & Youth Centre in Donnycarney where there was live music and a Santa’s grotto, and each child was gifted a selection box from the main man himself.  

These are the types of things that have a big impact on kids, says Barron, and help communities feel seen.

Still, as the festive events unfold across Dublin, there are areas where residents have felt a bit overlooked, some councillors have reported to officials at recent meetings.

Take Barron's own home turf of Donaghmede, for example.

He wants to see a Christmas tree there next year as the council didn’t get around to putting one in this year, said Barron at the North Central Area Committee meeting last week.

Residents around Harmonstown had also been asking why they hadn’t one, said Labour Councillor Ali Field, at the same meeting. 

At the meeting, Area Manager Mick Carroll assured both councillors that these areas would be included in the plans for next year.

Part of the issue, said Barron later, is that tree allocations kick off and are decided before most communities get to thinking to ask. 

O Christmas Tree

Overall, there are more Christmas trees put up by the council than there used to be, said Field, the Labour councillor, by phone on Wednesday.

For example, Coolock had one this year, but not last year, she said.

Lighting ceremonies – she’s been to a few – have been great fun, she says. Although, it works best when the lights actually turn on, she says, chuckling.

At the Clontarf tree lighting, there was something of an anti-climax when the tree failed to illuminate on cue, she says.

Field assumed the organisers were doing a skit at first, she said. 

It only took about five minutes for the problem to be sorted. “We were having such a laugh,” she says.

Communities have been gathering together outside at this time of year for centuries in Ireland, says Katie Blackwood, the council’s historian in residence for the North Central Area.

Light has often been central, she says. 

From lighting candles to Christmas trees – or, much further back, to welcoming the winter solstice in pre-Christian days, she says. “If you're thinking about Newgrange, it's about the light coming in.”

Many traditions this time of year are about ushering out the past and welcoming in a new year, but in a way that draws good luck or blessings, says Blackwood.

Barron, the Fianna Fáil councillor, says the council doesn’t intend to leave communities out of these civic traditions. 

It’s just that plans for tree allocation start much earlier in the year than people realise, he says. It’s usually too late to start asking in November.

He was approached for a tree by resident groups in Donaghmede this year and when he asked, he discovered it was past the cut-off point.

Health and safety considerations can take time to sort, he says.

“Then there’s getting access to electricity. Putting the proper chamber in the ground. Things that need to go through procurement,” says Barron.

Still the council are trying their best to get everything boxed off and improving every year, he says.

South of the river

At the November meeting of the council’s South Central Area Committee, independent Councillor Vincent Jackson asked that one of the trees at the Church of the Nativity in Chapelizod be lit up next year.

“To improve the Christmas cheer at this end of Chapelizod. Before the village square was done in the noughties, this tree was lit up by Dublin City Council,” Jackson said in a written question to council management.

The council will consider it for next year's Christmas Lighting Programme, read the response from Mick Carroll, senior executive officer in the area office. As long as the church agrees and funding is there for it, he said.

Meanwhile, at December’s meeting of the same committee, People Before Profit Councillor Hazel De Nortúin asked why Drimnagh was left off the list this year.

After all, there were two trees in Ballyfermot – one in Cherry Orchard, and one at the civic centre, she said.

“There’s always a void in that area, no matter how many times you raise it,” she said.

Carroll said Drimnagh had been left out at first. But the council rallied after the area’s November meeting when the issue had also been raised, he said.

They put in a tree at Our Lady’s Hall in Drimnagh, a council spokesperson said by email on Wednesday.

At the meeting, Sinn Féin Councillor Daithí Doolan told the council he was at the Drimnagh lighting ceremony. “It was a wonderful event.”

But there was a sense of frustration among locals that Drimnagh seemed to be an afterthought, said Doolan. 

“I will commit to having it in the schedule from the get go for Christmas 2026,” Carroll told the meeting. “I don’t understand how it was left out initially.”

Not all crevices, maybe

Barron says he expects more trees next year.

“It's important that we try get a Christmas tree in all parts of the constituency,” he said at last week’s committee meeting.

“So, I think let's join the dots there and find the little crevices that we haven't maybe got the Christmas trees for,” he said.

Could it go too far? Would fewer trees ensure groups from several neighbourhoods come together for the lighting?

“I don't think we're over indulging on them. If I felt we were, I'd say, ‘Fair enough,’” Barron said on the phone on Wednesday.

Still, it isn’t as straightforward as putting a tree in every nook and cranny either, a council spokesperson said by email on Wednesday.

Each area office and the parks section decide what they want in their areas of responsibility, they said.

Generally, Christmas trees are located in village centres and on main thoroughfares, they said, to get the greatest impact.

Some locations are not suitable to take a tree as the base of each one needs to be set in a chamber in the ground, they said. “There may be services that don’t allow a chamber.”

A tree may block or slow traffic – whether vehicles or pedestrians – or block lines of sight, they said. 

Electricity is another concern and solar lights aren’t considered reliable enough in most scenarios, they said. 

They are used in a few limited locations, they said, pending the delivery of a permanent power supply. Using solar, they would have to change the power pack every few days to keep the lights on, they said.

Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.