Jerry Lageson Has Magical Hands to Shine a Stunning Christmas Tree for Holiday Travelers

A semi passes by Jerry Lagerson’s tree along I-35 near Faribault, Minnesota

Jerry Lageson has a gift of a stanning Christmas Tree in Faribault, Minnesota

Spirits up a little bit

In 2012, Jerry Lageson flipped the switch and transformed an oak tree into a landmark for thousands of passersby. Along Interstate 35 south of Faribault, Minn.

When Lageson began his adventure, he had no idea the impact it would have: “A lot of truck drivers have been on the road for six or eight hours and then they go by this tree, and it gives them a little lift and they honk their horn.”

“I’d say millions of people have probably seen it,” Jerry says of his creation. It’s hard to miss a 40-foot oak tree adorned with 50,000 white lights.

“It’s a red oak,” Jerry clarifies. “It was fairly small when I bought the property, but I thought, that tree’s going to amount to something someday.”

Inspired by a similar tree near Minneapolis−Saint Paul International Airport, Jerry put up his first lights seven years ago. This fall, he spent three nights in a rented lift adding 12,000 more.

Lageson has received letters over the years from people who pass the tree on their way to and from hospitals, nursing homes, and families.

“It makes me feel like I bring joy to a lot of people,” he says. “I’m not personally involved with them, but my tree touches them – touches them right in their heart.”

Every holiday season thousands of people drive past this magical tree, and whether they are seeing it for the first time or many times, each finds their own piece of joy from those 50,000 twinkling lights.

Each year Jerry collects cards, letters, and cash donations from his mailbox. The senders thank Jerry as they write of the warm feelings evoked by his tree.

“All of them are people I’ve never met,” Jerry says. He wonders sometimes how they manage to find his address.

The letters are nice, but it was a phone call that’s proven to be Jerry’s most memorable interaction with a fan of his tree.

The call came from Nottingham, England. Andy Black had seen Jerry’s tree online. Inspired, Andy had already begun putting up lights on the plum tree in front of his home.

“Totally out of the blue,” Jerry says. “You can’t make it up.

A stunning tree of lights is a gift to I-35 holiday travelers

Nor could Jerry make up what happened just this week, when Andy and his wife Lisa flew from England to Minnesota to see Jerry’s tree in person.

“It’s better than what you can imagine it to be,” Andy says.

Then the two tree men – members of a select group – compared notes on lights, wiring, and electrical consumption.

“I’ve always admired the way that Americans dress the lights on their houses, and I wanted to find a way to dress the lights on my house,” Andy says.

The Brit gave Jerry’s tree a pat along its trunk and said, “To most people, they probably think this is a normal tree, but this is a special tree.”

Jerry doesn’t disagree. “In this dark world we can use a little light,” he says.