In Columbia, Mall Management Doesn't See the Point of Poinsettias

So when The Tree vanished, Lea and friends decided they needed to show the old Columbia spirit. They e-mailed friends asking supporters to congregate at the former site of The Tree, holding a poinsettia plant. On Sunday, a couple of hundred people did just that, despite a threat from mall managers to prevent the gathering.

In the end, "it was very civil," Lea said. "When the crowd got a little too big, they did ask people to move on, and the security guards did stop people from taking pictures."

Geary agreed to meet with a delegation of Tree lovers. But the meeting didn't move her. The mall has given away The Tree's steel frame, which is now decorated with lights as part of the Symphony of Lights show that benefits Howard County General Hospital. Geary says the mall is donating the money it used to spend on The Tree to Habitat for Humanity.

"The Poinsettia Tree doesn't define the community," she said. "The people define the community."

But the people want their Poinsettia Tree back. That's something Geary should understand.

"I remember when I was a kid," she said, "and we would go from Milwaukee to Chicago to go put our noses to the windows of Marshall Field's on State Street and look at the wonderful displays, and look at the Christmas trees in the Walnut Room and in the atrium. Well, now there are escalators in that atrium."

She paused, and then, to her credit, told the rest of her story:

"The Walnut Room still has the tree, even though it's now Macy's. I can close my eyes and see the big tree now."

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