VIDEO: Chicago Christmas Tree Cut From Spanglers' Yard

It took 80-plus years for the blue spruce in the Spanglers’ Old Town North front yard to grow to 55 feet. It took about four hours on Thursday morning to remove it, load it via crane onto a truck and ship it off en route to its grand illuminated destiny as the 2011 Chicago Christmas Tree.

News crews and local residents formed a modest posse on the 4100 block of Johnson Avenue, watching through a chilly drizzle and tumultuous breeze as the Brickman Group and La Grange Crane Service took a chainsaw to the tree’s stump, then airlifted it high over the other trees on the block before settling it to rest on a flatbed.

“We’re big DIY-ers, so we’re always doing all of our home improvement project ourselves,” said Claudia Spangler in between several televised interviews. “So this is the first time we’ve really had workers here doing something at our house—that’s completely new. But obviously we’re doing it in a big way!”

As the tree was airlifted and laid on the truck, it still bore the white bag-ribbon seen on trees throughout town as a tribute to Kelli O’Laughlin, per the Spanglers’ request. (Later that day, Indian Head Park police would on the O’Laughlin case.)

The tension of the week since the Spanglers became clear when a news helicopter covering the tree-removal apparently alarmed several residents, who feared some fresh calamity. McClure Junior High School received so many calls that the school sent out an e-mailed reassurance that there was nothing wrong.

Meanwhile, back on Johnson, where the bound-up, flying tree was a unique sight, if hardly indicative of its future splendor, Lyons Township junior Aidan Spangler (taking a half-day) suddenly discovered an entirely new view out his bedroom window.

“It’s a lot different—you can already tell a bunch of sunlight’s coming through,” Aidan said. “The tree was actually blocking my room, so I could barely see anything outside. Now I just went up there, and I could see everything… I was just amazed.”

The whole Spangler family (including daughter Hope, coming back from college, and other relatives) will bus down to Chicago on Nov. 23rd for the official tree lighting in Daley Plaza.

“I think this is exciting—it’s really neat,” said Dolores Spangler, Aidan’s grandmother, a Homer Glen resident freshly returned from a sojourn in Croatia. “Being here with my family is very important.

“And I love Western Springs! I think this is a nice community here.”