by Dennis Dalman
editor@thenewsleaders.com
Jonathan Carlson, a Sartell High School graduate, was an honored guest during the National Christmas Tree Lighting event in early December in Washington, D.C.
Carlson designed the tree ornaments for the North Dakota Christmas tree, one of 53 trees that encircle the huge national tree. During the dazzling tree-lighting ceremony, Carlson and his father, Dan, sat in the audience just 30 yards or so from the stage on which President Barack Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama and their two daughters greeted speakers and entertainers. Academy Award-winning actress Reese Witherspoon was the evening’s emcee, with performers who included Crosby, Stills and Nash and Patti LaBelle.
The First Lady, with Miss Piggy nearby, read The Night Before Christmas to children gathered on the stage.
“We had really good seating,” said Dan Carlson, although he admitted as the 90-minute event progressed, the weather became a bit too nippy for how he and his son were dressed – light jackets. “We were glad afterward to take the subway back to our hotel just north of the White House where we could get warm.”
The weather was 40 degrees, with a bit of wind.
Jonathan, 24, is a 2010 graduate of Sartell High School and is studying art and engineering at North Dakota State University in Fargo. The chairman of the NDSU Art Department nominated Jonathan to design the ornaments for the North Dakota tree, and the nomination was granted. At the lighting ceremony, there were 53 trees, each about 6 to 8 feet tall, one from each state, plus ones from three United States territories.
Jonathan’s challenge was to design ornament inserts for 12 fairly large transparent glass bulbs sent to him by the National Park Service, which is in charge of the annual lighting ceremony. It takes place each early December on the Ellipse within President’s Park just south of the White House.
Jonathan decided to create homespun, old-fashioned ornament inserts – quilted rounds serving as a background for his painted images representing North Dakota heritage, including buffalos, soy beans and so forth. The images were then embroidered onto the quilted inserts and placed within the 12 glass balls.
At the ceremony, when the switch was thrown and all the trees suddenly blazed with lights, the large crowd oohed and aahed its approval.
“It was unbelievable,” Dan said. “And we had such good seats, too. I was incredibly proud of my son.”
Jonathan is considering getting a degree in bio-medical engineering. He was recently chosen to be part of an undergraduate engineering program that is developing prosthetics (artificial limbs) that have sensory capabilities.
His hobbies are drawing, ceramics and reading.
“He definitely gets his creative side from his mother (Joan),” Dan said. “She’s very artistic and creative. I think he gets his analytical side from me.”
Dan is a chiropractor at Spinal Rehab in Sauk Rapids.
The Carlsons also have an older son, Michael, a 2007 Sartell High School graduate who is now a chiropractor in Bismarck, N.D. where his wife, Alexa, is a dentist.
The big tree
The event attended by the Carlsons was the 93rd annual National Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony, a tradition maintained by the U.S. National Park Service.
Each year, a different place in the nation is honored by being asked to provide a tree for the ceremony. This year’s huge tree came from the Chugatch National Forest in Alaska. Its 4,000 ornaments were designed by 10 Alaskan artists. Anna DeVold, an Alaskan fifth-grader, was chosen by U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan to flip the switch to light up the big tree and the many that surrounded it. This year’s icicle lights and net lights on the big tree are golden and silver-white in color, all of them LED lights with a combined power of 6,000 watts. The electricity to run the energy-efficient lights cost only $150 daily through the holiday season from dusk until 11 p.m., according to the Park Service. That is one-fifth the cost of incandescent Christmas lights. Using LED lights saves nearly 7,000 pounds of greenhouse gases and avoids burning more than one ton of coal.
With the White House in the background, Jonathan Carlson stands in front of the North Dakota tree for which he designed ornaments. This photo was taken the day after the National Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony.
Jonathan Carlson, a Sartell High School graduate, stands before the North Dakota tree for which he created ornaments during the National Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony. Note the White House in the background.
These are two of the 12 ornaments designed by Jonathan Carlson for the North Dakota Christmas tree in the nation’s capital. The ornament toward the top contains a painting of a buffalo head.
