As it often goes with traditions, we can’t remember how they began. Such is the case in Saginaw, Michigan, where a historic water treatment plant has been lit with Christmas lights for nearly a century.
Since the 1930s, plant employees have pulled lights and a 14-foot wreath out of storage and dressed up the facility and its surrounding grounds for the holidays. Based on stories from retirees and the parents of current employees, that’s the best guess for when the annual lighting display began, says Mark Krawczak, equipment and safety specialist, who has also become a sort of historian for the water
