NATCHEZ — Some may view it as just another road hazard, but for many it just isn’t Christmas without the Natchez Christmas tree.

For years, a local resident would donate a massive Christmas tree to erect at the intersection of Main and Commerce streets, but in 2004 that changed.

The original plan was to relocate the live tree to the Natchez bluff for liability reasons, but eventually a compromise artificial tree was placed at the traditional location.

City crews put up the Natchez Christmas tree. Click here for slideshow

Having a large, live tree moving and shaking in the wind wasn’t safe, city officials decided, but there was another, more basic reason that the city made the switch to artificial.

“We got to where we had a hard time locating trees and getting people to donate trees,” Natchez Mayor Jake Middleton said. “People didn’t want to donate them and we had to go out and get them and have them hauled in — we just couldn’t find a tree.”

So now the artificial tree is constructed yearly, and city crews moved the 500-pound base from the public works barn and the rest of the tree from the Margaret Martin building last week.

“It was a lot of fun to see it coming together piece-by-piece,” said Natchez Downtown Development Director Carrie Lambert, whose office has a window view of the tree.

First, the crews set the base and central frame, and then they assemble the eight rolls of metal rings from the ground up, Public Works Director Eric Smith said.

Once the frame is erected using a bucket truck, the work goes from the top down.

“We put the star on and work our way down,” Smith said.

“Then we fluff out those artificial limbs — the lights are already in the limbs, and the lights are plugged in as we work down the tree.”

Once everything is done, the workers place a skirting around the bottom of the tree and place barricades around it.

The tree’s location isn’t without hazards, however, and though it has typically been accident-free, last year was not the case.

“Someone downtown had too much to drink and drove up Main Street the wrong way and smacked into the tree,” Lambert said.

A local metal fabricator repaired the damage to the tree, and assembling it this year didn’t prove any harder than before, Smith said.

The tree will stand until shortly after the New Year, and then it will once again go back into storage.