Christmas tree on Glen Lake floats again, lit for the season

Photos courtesy of Frank Siepker, Jr.’s Facebook page.

From staff reports

The Dec. 15 windstorm that blew through Northern Michigan and left much of Leelanau County without power also capsized Frank Siepker, Jr.’s beloved floating Christmas tree on Big Glen Lake.

Each year for the last seven years, Siepker has lit the 12-foot tree with 2,000 LED solar-powered lights and placed it on an anchored rowboat that bobs in the water near the Glen Lake Narrows.

Three days after the storm, Siepker and his wife Tracy donned their waders and wetsuits, recovered the capsized Christmas tree boat and hauled it back to shore for repairs, as the sound of standby generators hummed in their Consumers Power-serviced neighborhood (Siepker works for Cherryland Electric).

“Pretty much a complete rebuild,” Siepker wrote on Facebook on Dec. 18. “Good thing I keep 100 percent surplus on spare parts in the barn … Not our first rodeo!”

After welding up holes and rebuilding the Christmas tree light’s electronics, Siepker relaunched the tree by nightfall the following day.

“Santa baby. She’s BACK!” he wrote on Dec. 19. “She ain’t going the way of the Rouse Simmons [shipwreck] after all. “O Christmas tree. Each year you bring to us delight. With brightly shining Christmas lights.”

The Glen Lake Christmas Tree Boat will light up each night at 5:30 p.m. until the new year.