Glen Lake has been growing darker as winter creeps in, but a familiar, cheery glow is about to reappear — the floating Christmas tree that has become a beloved seasonal landmark for all will launch on Sunday.
According to Frank Siepker, the Glen Lake local who puts up the display, the idea came from a simple problem. While he and his family love decorating for Christmas, living right on the lake made typical outdoor decorations hard to see.
“If we did that, no one could see it because nobody’s out on the lake,” he said. Looking out onto the shoreline felt “just cold and dark,” so he came up with a plan. “I had this idea to put a tree out in a boat and decorate it…and it makes the big black lake look a little bit more lit up and cheerful in the wintertime.”
The tree always sits in Siepker’s childhood boat — a 14-foot aluminum craft from the mid 1980’s. To keep a full size evergreen steady on the water, he built “a big, welded aluminum subframe that sits in the boat,” and uses ratchet straps to ensure the tree doesn’t tip over in the winter winds.
Even with the impressive support structure, the elements still win sometimes. The boat has tipped a few times and once broke loose and floated to the other side of the lake. Now, the boat is put on a lift in the case of bad weather or high winds.
Since the tradition began in 2014, the set up has evolved. The first tree was artificial and decked in “house-hold style Christmas lights” powered by a small inverter. Over the years, they’ve switched to a real tree, added DC lights, solar panels, and more batteries. However, through all the changes, the look has stayed intentionally simple.
“There’s just not enough definition for other decorations at a long distance, so there’s lots and lots of little LED lights,” Siepker said.
Every year the tree is launched on the Sunday after Thanksgiving and the Siepker family gathers for the moment the lights turn on. The next morning, Siepker says, starts their seasonal morning routine, “we’ll wake up and look out and go, ‘oh, yeah, it’s on, we’re good’.”
As the display got better over the years, more people noticed. “Everybody seems to enjoy the little Christmas cheer as much as we do,” Siepker said. Over the years, it has even drawn attention well beyond Leelanau. “I’ve had people as far as New York say they saw the Christmas tree on TV,” he said.
Despite the attention, the purpose remains simply to cast a bit of festive light across the winter water.
