Nearly 20 years after Dick and Barbara Runck replanted their Christmas tree, it is once again aglow with lights — this time for all of downtown to see.

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Fountain Square was aglow Friday from the newly-lit Christmas tree (right), ice rink (left) and performance stage (top left). 600 |800 | 1024

        Hundreds of people crammed into Fountain Square on Friday night to see the Norway spruce, which once twinkled merrily in the Runcks' College Hill home, become Cincinnati's official Christmas tree.

        “We love it, too, and we want to share it with you,” Ms. Runck said just before two of her grandchildren threw the switch to light the 30-foot tree and flood the square with a cheery white glow.

        “It's our Christmas tree, but I've never seen it lit up like that,” she said. “It's wonderful to see.”

        Mayor Charlie Luken, who read a proclamation declaring Friday “Light Up the Square Day,” said it was made possible by the Runck family.

        They donated the tree, which stood in their yard, after officials had trouble finding one that could be dug up with its root ball intact.

        “We searched long and hard for a tree,” Mr. Luken said. “It will be replanted after the holiday season.”

        Eleven-year-old Lauren Runck, who helped her 12-year-old cousin Brett Peterson flip the switch, said it was exciting — and a little bit sad.

        “I can't recognize it that much,” she said. “But it's kind of hard, cause now there's a bare spot where it used to be.”

        But there was no bare spot on the square, something Melanie Beyersdofer says she couldn't imagine.

        “I cannot count the number of times we've come to see the tree lighting,” she said after the ceremony. “It's special. You run into people you know. ... You get to see the kids' faces light up.”

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