A plan to plant a larger live Christmas tree on the lawn of the newly remodeled Limestone County Courthouse will have to wait until next year.

District 3 County Commissioner Jason Black had arranged to have a Fuja Green Giant tree uprooted from its home in District 3 and moved to the courthouse lawn in Athens in November.

Mother Nature’s tight grip on rainfall spoiled the plan.

“The Fuja Green Giant is looking kind of sick, plus our excavators can’t dig into the dirt at the courthouse it’s

so dry,” Black said.

All was not lost.

“On Monday, we planted a large Southern cedar that was cut from District 3,” Black said. The tree lighting ceremony is set for 4:30 p.m. on the courthouse lawn. The annual Christmas parade begins at 6 p.m.

Black said he hopes to get a large tree rooted on the lawn next year so the county won’t have to keep cutting and then temporarily “planting” a tree each Christmas.

Although a Christmas tree was planted on the lawn a few years ago, Black said it is still small and this year’s drought has rendered it a “Charlie Brown Christmas tree.”