Belhaven University’s annual Singing Christmas Tree approaches its 92nd performance this year, as toasty and welcome as a hot cup of cocoa — all the warm comfort of tradition plus a sprinkle of something special and new to top it off.

This year, the free, two-night event takes place at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Dec. 6 and 7, in the Belhaven Bowl Stadium. Lights on the tree change colors and patterns in tune with the Christmas carols, students sing with holiday cheer and dance majors with lighted wings now add an angelic touch to the occasion.

Jackson’s seasonal staple is the oldest singing Christmas tree tradition in the United States. Its decades-long tenure as a community holiday draw has forged a spot, too, in family Christmas traditions — perhaps none so strong as its bond with the Quinn family. The late Bettye Quinn (1935-2020), a Belhaven grad and longtime head of elementary education at Belhaven, logged an 80-plus-year attendance record at the event, earning a reputation as its most loyal fan.

A true Southern lady, who was only seen wearing pants twice (once under a dress to the Singing Christmas Tree because of the cold, her obituary shared), Quinn was a treasured faculty member with a faultless knack for remembering students’ names far beyond their student years. Her nephew Tony Quinn, who she raised, practically grew up on the campus. “If Bettye was doing it, I was there with her,” he said. “We had a party every Friday night of the tree at our house,” for the choir and any tree singers who wanted to come.

Tony Quinn’s late Aunt Bettye Quinn, a Belhaven graduate and longtime faculty member, was an avid cheerleader for the choir and attended Singing Christmas Tree performance for more than 80 years. Tony Quinn remembers braving heights to sing on the tree while a student there in the early 1980s. Credit: Courtesy Belhaven University.

“Being a child, to experience something like that!” he marveled. “You had the best voices in town, in one room — and we had a small living room — and they would start singing and it was just like an angelic choir.” It felt like old home week, too, with past students of hers returning to sing on the tree. “To this day, when I taste cheese straws and date balls … that is Belhaven to me.”

For the night’s concert, a crisp evening best sets the scene. 

“When it’s cold and clear, that’s always the best sound,” said E.C. Harpe, an integral part in its production for more than 50 years. 

His introduction to the Belhaven Singing Christmas Tree came in 1966, and the sound and spectacle won him over. Originally from Pelahatchie, he was a student at Hinds Community College at the time. 

“We brought a busload of folks from Hinds — I was in choir out there, and a music major in college —  to see the tree,” said Harpe. “We sat down there in the Bowl and sat up on the side of the hill, and Stuart Liles, who at that time was a legend … had one of the most beautiful baritone voices I ever heard, and he sang ‘O Holy Night’ on the tree, and I said, ‘I’m going to do that some day.’” And, he did.

E.C. Harpe, charmed by Belhaven’s Singing Christmas Tree since he first experienced it in 1966, has kept his vow be part of it. He sang on the tree as a student 1968-73, and has helped with the lights for 54 years. Credit: Sherry Lucas/Mississippi Today

Harpe started at Belhaven University in fall 1968. “That was my highlight year, because that’s the year that I met my wife,” he said of his dear Betty. That was also the first year he added his bass baritone to the tree’s choir, continuing through 1973. 

“That’s when I started putting the tree together and doing the lighting and all that kind of stuff,” said Harpe, who returned to Belhaven after graduation, working in the maintenance department. “So, I got to see this thing from the ground up every year.

“Last year was the first time that I was able to sit back over there in the bleachers and watch the whole thing,” Harpe said, “and it’s awesome.”

“It’s really, really nice now,” Tony Quinn, a singer on it 1982-83 agreed, laughing as he added, “but if you didn’t get to climb up on that rickety wooden frame — that was the Belhaven Singing Christmas Tree! … That’s nostalgic, not knowing if you were getting down or not! My first time, it scared me to death.” 

Harpe, too, had to chuckle, knowing well the sway that happened when young singers moved with the music, particularly on “Jingle Bells” and pleas of, “Would you be still, please?” that filtered through the ranks. “That’s when you knew it was getting good,” he laughed.

Since its 1933 start, the tree frame got taller, electric lights replaced the candles, voices were amplified and singers were added each year. The current 35-foot metal structure with 11 risers can support more than 100 choir singers. Ninety-three singers are signed up for this weekend.

Singers used to have to hold clusters of colored bulbs on fat wire strands to give the lighted effect. “So, if you’re afraid of heights and electricity, it was really a wild night,” Tony Quinn teased.

No shocks over the years, but Harpe recalled a few fainters. Standing about an hour with locked knees, it was bound to happen occasionally. ‘All of a sudden, you would see a blank spot up on the tree, and someone had sat down on the frame behind them because they passed out,” Harpe said. “After the song was over with, we’d turn off the lights, we’d go up there, bring ‘em down, everyone would move around one spot, readjust and bam! We’d go right on.” 

Sometimes, singers on either side would prop up the woozy one. hands in their armpits, until the song’s finish.

Now, lighting is attached to the tree frame. New, big LED bulbs this year stick with the traditional Christmas tree look, “but it’s supposed to be brighter,” said Belhaven Music Department Chair Rebecca Geihsler, who co-directs the Singing Christmas Tree with piano instructor Katie Moody.

Singers have used paper confetti to add a winter visual to songs, but real snow brought its own magic a time or two, crystallizing the scene into a favorite memory for Tony Quinn. 

Tony Quinn, nephew of the late Bettye Quinn, a cherished Belhaven professor who logged Singing Christmas Tree performances over eight decades, recalls the parties she hosted for the singers and the angelic voices that filled their home. Credit: Sherry Lucas/Mississippi Today

“When you’re watching the tree, and they’re singing ‘Let It Snow, Let It Snow,’ and there’s snow falling out of the sky, it’s just a godly moment.”

Since last year’s fake snow attempt “didn’t read as well as I wanted it to,” Geihsler said, they subbed another song in that slot.

“O Holy Night” is always the evening’s highlight. “It’s that senior’s moment of glory,” Tony Quinn said, “and if you know them, it makes it extra special.”

This year, fifth-year senior vocal performance and dance major Julia Myers has the solo spotlight in “O Holy Night.” “I was very honored to be able to sing such a wonderful song that is very dear to so many people,” Myers said.

The longstanding tradition continues to adapt to the talents that come through Belhaven University. In the past several years, dancing angels during “Angels We Have Heard on High” brought another big moment to the program. 

“They dance on the field and it is quite a sight to behold, and the kids that are present just absolutely love them,” Geihsler said. “They’re like Disney princesses, but angels.” 

Arrive early to catch pictures with the angels at a photo booth, new this year. “We have some little wings for little kids to put on.”

Weather willing, a Trans Siberian-type setting of “Carol of the Bells” will feature alum Ian Edwards playing an electric guitar part he wrote to go with it. Last year’s dueling violins for “We Three Kings,” played by students Noelani Perry and Ruvim Echiusciu, is set to return. And, one of the last songs, “Crown Him with Many Crowns,” ties the Nativity to the Resurrection.

Come early, bring a blanket, grab some hot chocolate and settle in for a cherished tradition that continues to evolve. What holds steady for 90 years and counting with the Belhaven Singing Christmas Tree is the charm of Christmas carols in community and families feeling and sharing the spirit.  

“Everybody’s a kid at the tree,” Tony Quinn said. “It’s just one of those things.”

Creative Commons License

Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.

https://mississippitoday.org/author/sherrylucas/