"As the City continues to develop and grow, it's getting increasingly difficult to find tumbleweeds." That line comes from the City of Chandler, on the page that explains how the Tumbleweed Tree gets built. The same paragraph says Parks crews now start the hunt earlier each year, and they sometimes drive as far as the Gila River Indian Reservation to find enough dried thistle.
Chandler's best-known holiday symbol is made from weeds, and those weeds grow on vacant lots and fallow farm fields. The city has fewer of both every year. The tree goes up again for the lighting on Saturday, Dec. 5, and you can follow the city's growth through the work it takes to build it.
A harvest that needs vacant land
The city's spec is narrow. A usable tumbleweed has to be well rounded, about 3 feet across, and just turning brown when it's picked. Crews search vacant lots and farm fields around Chandler for more than 1,000 of them, which works out to roughly 12 truckloads. The weeds are then stored and dried until construction begins.
Now compare that with the city's own measure of how much open land is left. Chandler's 2026 General Plan, dated Dec. 15, 2025, describes the incorporated city as "approximately 94% built out." The plan says that as Chandler approaches build-out, the focus shifts mainly to redevelopment, infill, and annexing county islands.
Infill is exactly the kind of growth that eats the tree's supply. When a vacant parcel becomes a building, that's one fewer patch of ground where a 3-foot thistle can grow round and dry out on schedule. The tree needs a dozen truckloads. The roughly 6% of the city that isn't built out yet is where that supply has to come from.
What the crew does with 12 truckloads
The Parks Operations Division builds the tree, and the city calls the crew "a highly qualified and enthusiastic group." On this year's event page, the city thanks Guillermo Valenzuela, Gorge Cazares, Eddie Rodriguez and Alvaro Cervantes for working on the 2026 tree.
Here's the city's description of a typical build, step by step:
- A two-piece metal center pole is bolted to the ground, with a ring at the top and a four-piece bottom ring bolted to the pole.
- Thirty cables run from the top ring to the bottom anchor ring to form the cone, and the star goes on top.
- Chicken wire is stretched over the cables, and the tumbleweeds are tied onto that framework and shaped.
- The tree is pre-sprayed with fire retardant, then gets two coats of white latex paint, 25 gallons in all.
- A final layer of 50 pounds of silver glitter goes on.
- Once everything is dry, workers string 1,200 lights.
The city estimates the job takes about 10 Parks maintenance workers roughly 13 working days. According to the city's fact page, the finished tree averages about 33 feet tall and 18 feet wide, and the frame switched from wood to steel at some point.
The frame and the paint are the predictable parts of the job. The supply is what changes, because it comes from the ground around town and nobody orders it. The steel pole goes back into storage after the season. The tumbleweeds have to be found again next fall.
It started as a workaround with what was on hand
The well-known origin story says a fire in late 1956 or early 1957 destroyed Chandler's Christmas decorations, and the town built a tumbleweed tree to replace them. The city's own history blog calls that folklore and traces the tree to something more ordinary.
In 1957, Arizona Public Service replaced the downtown light poles with poles too flimsy to hold the town's heavy strings of colored lights. With the holidays coming, the town formed a committee led by Bill Wilson, who managed the local J.C. Penney store and had won the previous year's individual decorating contest. Earle Barnum, the town decorator, came up with the tumbleweed tree. He had seen a tree made from local pine boughs in his Indiana hometown, and he adapted the idea to the plant Chandler had in abundance.
The tree wasn't the main attraction that first year. According to the city's account, the talk of the town was a set of 80 cotton boll wreaths mounted on every light pole downtown and along Arizona Avenue. The Chandler Arizonan printed weekly progress updates on them until they went up on Dec. 2, 1957. The Kiwanis built the first tree, 30 feet tall, and finished it on Nov. 27, 1957.
Both of the 1957 decorations used local farm material. Cotton bolls came from the fields, and tumbleweeds came from the edges of those fields. Barnum picked tumbleweeds because they were everywhere. By the 70th lighting, crews have to drive out of town to find enough of them.
Lighting number 70: the Dec. 5 plan
KTAR billed last December's ceremony as the 69th annual lighting, so this year's is the 70th. The City of Chandler event page lists the Tumbleweed Tree Lighting Ceremony for Saturday, Dec. 5, 2026, from 4:30 to 9 p.m. at 3 S. Arizona Ave. in Downtown Chandler. Admission is free.
| Time | What's happening |
|---|---|
| 4:30 p.m. | Event opens downtown; Santa's House, run in partnership with the Chandler Lions Club, offers free photos |
| 6:30–8 p.m. | Santa's House closes while Santa rides in the parade |
| 6:45–8 p.m. | Parade of Lights |
| About 8 p.m. | Tree lighting, right after the parade |
| 9 p.m. | Event ends |
Kids can drop letters in Santa's mailbox. Chandler Fire runs a "Stuff the Truck" toy drive for new, unwrapped toys. Look for the fire engine on the east side of Arizona Avenue, north of Boston Street.
Parking takes the most planning. The city recommends carpooling and arriving early. It lists garages and lots P1 through P11, including the Overstreet, Oregon Street, City Hall, Alexander and Jonathon structures. The P2 street parking area is closed for construction, and Folley Park is the overflow option, with entrances from McQueen and Frye roads or Pecos Road and Hamilton Street. Street closures start in the afternoon, when Arizona Avenue closes between Frye and Pecos roads. Restrictions on Frye Road and Chandler Boulevard follow in the evening, and the last Arizona Avenue closure, between Chandler Boulevard and Frye Road, runs until 10 p.m. Check final times on the city's Parade of Lights page before you head out.
The downtown season the tree anchors
The tree lights on Dec. 5, but the downtown holiday calendar starts before that and runs into January. Most of it is built around the same few blocks of Arizona Avenue and Boston Street.
- Thursday, Nov. 19: The Third Thursday Girls Night Market. BlackSheep Wine Bar, COMMIT Dance Fitness and Lola's Liquors are among the listed participants. The Holiday Market follows on Dec. 17.
- Saturday, Nov. 28: Small Business Saturday, with live music from 1 to 4 p.m. Participating shops include Earthwild, d'Vine Gourmet, Gemsetter & Company, Saba's Western Wear and Boutique on Boston.
- Nov. 28 through Jan. 3: Holiday Magic featuring Sugarland, a light and photo installation from the Downtown Chandler Community Partnership. It opens with a free Prancer's Pajama Party in Dr. A.J. Chandler Park West from 4 to 6 p.m., with reindeer games, community performances and crafts.
- Saturday, Dec. 12: The Sippin' Santas Pub Crawl. Venues include Murphy's Law Irish Pub, The Stillery, Lola's Liquors, SanTan Brewery, Craft 64 Chandler and Pedal Haus Chandler.
- Dec. 12, 15 and 19: Free visits at Santa's House in Dr. A.J. Chandler Park, after its Dec. 5 opening night.
The Downtown Chandler Community Partnership keeps the full schedule on its events page, and Visit Chandler collects the citywide holiday listings.
Each of these events happens around a tree that took 10 people about two weeks to build, from weeds gathered on whatever open ground the city still has. The General Plan calls Chandler about 94% built out, so that open ground is now a small share of the city.
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