Darra Glavan provided the city with its first Christmas tree for the new Joliet City Square on Friday and couldn’t be happier to do it.

“I just thought it was a nice thing to do for the city,” Glavan said. “I love Joliet. I’ve lived here my whole life.”

Glavan is 86, and her age – along with a life spent in Joliet – contributed to her decision to donate the Norway spruce that will light up downtown for the holidays.

“I’ll go down in history now,” she joked with children and grandchildren who joined her to watch the tree get cut down and taken away to the new City Square.

The tree itself has a history in the family.

Glavan’s late husband, Lou, replanted the tree when it was a sapling from a spot near the garage more than 40 years ago. She thought the tree would never survive the replanting.

“I thought it was a joke when my husband did it,” she said. “I said, ‘That’s crazy.’”

One of her sons, also named Lou, remembers his father moving the tree.

“It was a little sapling,” Lou said. “Dad decided, ‘Let’s move it over there.’ That was in 1979 or ‘80. It’s been there ever since. The rest is history,”

It really is – even if it’s just a sliver of history likely to be forgotten in the coming years outside of the Glavan family.

The City Square still is under construction, but it will be partially opened for the tree-lighting ceremony, which will be part of the Light Up the Holidays Festival and Parade on Nov. 28.

Ann Sylvester, the city’s director of cultural affairs and special events, noted the importance of having a Joliet tree in the square for its inaugural event.

“It’s the city of Joliet’s first tree in the City Square,” Sylvester said. “I think having someone from Joliet contribute the tree is really wonderful.”

The city has opened up Christmas tree contributions to neighboring communities; the last tree was donated by a Plainfield resident.

But Glavan said she would have been suspicious if the city took any tree other than hers.

“That tree was perfect,” she said.

The healthy 35-foot-tall tree not only looks good, but it was in what Glavan called “the perfect spot.”

Joe Nordman, deputy director of operations for the city’s Department of Public Works, confirmed that it was.

“It’s really easy to get. That’s a big thing,” Nordman said.

Homer Tree Service was able to lift and load the tree onto a truck fairly easily compared with past Christmas tree removals in Joliet.

“It’s in a side lot,” Nordman said. “It’s right next to the street. It’s very easy to access.”

Moving a tree can be become complicated if it is near a house or power lines, neither of which was a factor Friday.

The late Lou Glavan’s decision to replant the tree decades ago made the transport very easy. The project went so smoothly that the tree arrived downtown more than an hour ahead of schedule.

“We are as careful as we can be to not break any limbs,” said Felipe Valladares, the foreman on the job for Homer Tree Service.

Homer Tree Service has experience cutting down and moving residents’ pine trees in Joliet and in other towns so the trees can be used for municipal Christmas trees.

On Thursday, Homer Tree Service did the same job in Brookfield. Previously this year, the company moved trees in Downers Grove and Mount Prospect to be used for municipal Christmas trees.

The ease with which the Glavan family tree was taken downtown no doubt would have pleased the late Lou Glavan.

Darra Glavan said her late husband “liked to talk” and would have had plenty to say Friday.

“He would have loved this,” she said. “I said to my sons, ‘Dad’s up in heaven looking down.’”