While many students are on the verge of trekking home and basking in the seasonal delights of their own towns, they likely have not been oblivious to the holiday decor dressing trees and sprucing up poles along Lincoln Avenue and Charleston’s Square.

Whether simply making a beeline to the liquor store or lugging groceries to their cars, it is difficult for students and staff alike not to catch a glimpse of the string of seasonal lights and multicolored candle and snowflake lights paving a festive trail through Charleston’s streets.

Although quite noticeable, the lights and decorations dangling from the fringes of buildings, treetops and the like require substantial manpower to set up.

City workers, primarily from Charleston’s Street Department, first began displaying the items during Thanksgiving break, said Quincy Combs, superintendent of the Street Department. Efforts by the city’s Uptown Association, Chamber of Commerce and the aforementioned Street Department have led to the city’s festive look.

While the Uptown Association, a group of merchants around the Square who decide its holiday style, have jurisdiction on what goes where as far as decorations are concerned on the Square, the Street Department workers install all city-sponsored decorations each year, Combs said.

Seasonal lights, such as those that cling to the courthouse, are maintained and installed by an outside company, since the upkeep of the lights essentially is beyond the department’s capabilities, he said.

Combs said his department’s workers also keep a keen eye on the materials they erect to ensure they are properly maintained or replaced. Primarily, the replacement of decorations depends on how durable they are and how well they withstand the effects of the elements over the years.

“Over the past several years we added additional lighting on the Square,” Combs said. “We also added 10 new wreaths this year on the Square. We do it on an as-needed basis. We try to look at the condition of the decorations as they deteriorate and try to replace them if needed.”

Purchases made by the city this fall also included 10 new Christmas banners that bear a message reflecting holiday tradition and the inevitable replacement bulbs for the strings of lights adorning the city, he said.

Before even stringing lights throughout Charleston, workers comb through bulbs to double check that all of them are in proper working condition. But Combs emphasized the process of replacing bulbs is a tedious and grueling one.

“We replace a thousand bulbs each year,” he said. “(The city) has all different colors, but the majority are white. To just install them, it takes three days. We use several people to do this and spend two to three days just to repair them.”

Combs, who has been affiliated with the Street Department since 1981, said as more businesses have blossomed on Lincoln Avenue, he has observed the trend in decoration placement gradually shift over the years.

“Most of the retail businesses are on Lincoln, so more decorations have moved toward Lincoln,” he said. “Ideally, we would have decorations up and down Sixth and Seventh streets. With the wiring though, it is virtually impossible. We would have liked to have tied decorations from the Square up to EIU. We looked into it and it wasn’t feasible though.”

Combs said most holiday lighting at one time was encouraged by the Chamber of Commerce, but it recently has turned over the responsibilities associated with the materials to the individual entities.

The majority of the lights and the decor primarily have been funded by the Chamber of Commerce, the Uptown Association and donations, while the city also has footed the bill for certain materials, Combs said.

“It’s kind of a joint effort,” he said.

In 1993, Eastern and the city of Charleston made a mutual agreement to have the iconic Old Main bathed in a sea of Christmas lights throughout each year’s holiday season, said Gary Reed, interim director of Facilities Planning and Management.

And the lights have since become a staple on the exterior of the structure. While the city purchased the lights, Eastern was under the understanding it was responsible for displaying, operating and maintaining them, Reed said.

No debate has yet ensued regarding whether the university should have holiday lights draped on top of any of the residence halls or academic buildings, said Mark Hudson, director of Housing and Dining Services. Hudson said hall council members in residence halls only can decide what the interior of the residence halls can be decked in, not the exterior.

Reed and Hudson both offered explanations as to why Eastern has prominently placed lights solely on Old Main, while leaving them absent from other university buildings.

“Old Main is an awesome structure and the icon for our campus,” Reed said. “Also, Old Main presents a great visual impact for the city when you are heading south on Sixth Street from downtown.”

Hudson reiterated Old Main, often referred to as the ‘castle,’ is the symbol of Eastern as an educational institution.

“The whole thing about Old Main is it is such a distinctive shape, such a landmark,” he said.