HYDE PARK — For the 74th year, the Museum of Science and Industry lit its massive Christmas tree on Thursday afternoon for its “Christmas Around the World” celebration.
Every year, the celebration at the museum, 5700 S. Lake Shore Drive, involves more than 50 trees decorated by the city’s many ethnic enclaves, but this year the building blocks of the celebration are slightly different.
The 45-foot-tall main tree is decked out with Lego bricks to coincide with the “Brick by Brick” exhibit.
The museum is also offering a special Cubs-themed Christmas tree, which includes ornaments made with Legos.
The museum has invited in lots of Chicagoans to make their own ornaments out of Lego bricks.
Betnijah Laney of the Chicago Sky came to see the Lego basketball ornament she had made for museum.
The WNBA player said she played with Legos as a kid and was excited to try her hand at it again.
“The hardest thing was trying to get it to stick together with all the connectors,” Laney said.
Former astronaut Jim Lovell and others also contributed Lego ornaments; instructions on how to build those ornaments are expected to be posted on the museum’s web site soon.
The tree lighting tradition started in 1942 during World War II, with the tree redecorated every day during the run-up to Christmas by a different ethnic group in the city or ally of the United States in the war.
“We’ve expanded a little from one tree,” said David Mosena, president of the museum. “The same spirit is alive today as we continue to build on the tradition.”
This year, the museum has added a tree from groups representing Kenya.
There will be performances from groups representing many of the countries that have trees on display, as well as visits from Santa Claus and workshops on building ornaments out of Lego bricks throughout November and December.
A full listing of events is available on the museum’s web site.
For fans of Mold-A-Rama figurines, this is also the one time of the year when the Christmas tree figure is available.
The tree is 45-feet tall and nearly reaches the top of the museum's main rotunda.
