The Christmas Schooner

What’s Christmas time without a elegantly adorned, aromatic evergreen tree to brighten the long winter nights? This holiday season, the Spokane Civic Theatre attempts to answer this question through its performance of the holiday-themed musical A Christmas Schooner. The story, based on real historic events, tells the tale of a 19th century schooner on the Great Lakes whose captain risks his life to transport fir trees across the frigid winter waters from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula to Chicago. There, the captain sold the trees mostly to the city’s German immigrants, who celebrated the long-practiced holiday tradition of decorating them inside their homes. The award-winning musical ran for 12 consecutive seasons in Chicago after its original debut in 1996.