Pedestrians use their smartphones to capture the newly illuminated Christmas tree at the Syntagma square in Athens on November 23, 2023. (Photo by Angelos Tzortzinis/AFP Photo)
A Zombie Santa is pictured Death Yard Haunted Attraction in Hendersonville, Tennessee December 10, 2014. The Nashville-area haunted house is getting into the Christmas spirit this weekend, with Zombie Santa, his undead elves and a demonic reindeer going on the attack for fun and charity. (Photo by Harrison McClary/Reuters)
Visitors look at penguins wearing Santa Claus (in red) and Christmas tree (in green) costumes during a promotional event for Christmas at an amusement park in Yongin, south of Seoul, December 18, 2013. (Photo by Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters)
A man wearing a mask walks past the “Christmas Cab” sculpture displayed along Fifth Avenue on December 02, 2020 in New York City. The annual Holiday Sculptures display is organized by the Fifth Avenue Association and consist of 10 sculptures that runs from 50th Street to 59th Street. (Photo by Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images)
Illuminated installations light up the Heligan Night Garden on November 17, 2022, set amidst the atmospheric Lost Gardens in Cornwall. The Lost Gardens of Heligan have worked with The Lantern Company to illuminate the Gardens which is now open to the public. (Photo by South West News Service)
Axel Erlandson (December 15, 1884 – April 28, 1964) was a Swedish American farmer who shaped trees as a hobby, and opened a horticultural attraction in 1947 advertised as "See the World's Strangest Trees Here," and named "The Tree Circus."
The trees appeared in the column of Robert Ripley's Believe It or Not! twelve times. Erlandson sold his attraction shortly before his death. The trees were moved to Gilroy Gardens in 1985.
Created by artist and unassuming local celebrity, Keith Jennings, the first tree spirit arrived on St. Simons Island in 1982. The old story goes that Keith negotiated his way out of a bar tab, hence, a tree priestess was born behind Murphy’s Tavern, on a blurry Saturday morning. In his own words, however, Keith states that his first tree spirit was created in the back yard of a place called, “The Animal Farm”. Either way, Keith Jennings has been known to cut the rug around here, no matter how you slice it.