Detroit suburb comes together to find a real Christmas tree

DEARBORN HEIGHTS, Mich. (AP) — A Detroit suburb worried about the late delivery of an artificial Christmas tree from China has instead received the real thing — a towering Norway spruce — just in time for a community tree-lighting celebration.

The 40-foot (12-meter) tree was transplanted Monday at city hall in Dearborn Heights, thanks to the Michigan farm that grew it and a local Muslim American business owner who helped pay the $10,000 expense, WXYZ-TV reported.

“They were really on a time crunch, and this is our way of giving back,” Sam Hussein said.

Mo Baydoun, the new mayor who is also Muslim, said the Christmas tree is a sign of unity at a time when there’s a lot of “hate that’s kind of going around.” In recent weeks, there was a small but contentious anti-Islam protest next door in Dearborn. Southeastern Michigan has one of the largest U.S. populations of Arab Americans.

“We’re going to stay working and loving and showing respect to all faiths and religions,” Baydoun said.

He said the city had ordered a “fake tree from China” that wasn’t going to arrive until Thursday, too late to have it in place before the tree-lighting event on Friday. City staff went to Huff’s Tree Farm in Highland, desperate for a remedy.

If nature cooperates, the tree could last a long time.

“It’s one of the prettiest ones we have at the farm,” Nicholas Huff said.