Santa Clara Living

Do you know how you can tell it’s the Christmas season when you live in Santa Clara? By the lighting of the city’s sixty-foot Christmas tree, of course! Lit earlier this month, the city also hoisted a stuffed “teddy bear” to the top to take its earned place of recognition that it has held for 99 years that’s since 1911 when Alice Dixon Hills shared her beloved bear with the city when she was only one year old. At the time her father, James Dixon, was the utilities superintendent for the Santa Clara municipal electric utility and he thought his daughter’s bear (named “Teddy” after President Theodore Roosevelt who refused to shoot an injured bear cub) would serve as a useful adornment, and Alice’s “teddy” has been hoisted every year since. In years past the stuffed bear had been pecked by birds and damaged by winter storms to the point that he was held together by duct tape. Today, city electricians have built him a clear protected box and he is decorated by a “green glow” thanks to the use of renewably powered lights provided by Santa Clara Green Power. You bet this bear has some stories to tell as he makes his way into the new wave of green energy! And you just have to know that next year as “Teddy” celebrates his 100th year is going to be a big one for all of Santa Clara and its surrounding communities.