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US Bank puts a Christmas tree on top of its building every year. The tree has become a fixture up there, but this year, it’s been up a little longer than planned. Why? The answer is simple. It’s just been to cold and windy to safely get it down.

The US Bank Christmas tree has been brightening the Boise skyline for 21 years. Every year, the tree goes up a week before Thanksgiving.
“It takes us about a week to relamp it and make sure the bulbs are on,” said Duane Pace, Tree Engineer.
Sometime in January it usually comes back down.
“Right now we’re taking the lights down; once we get the rest rolled up, we're going to tip it this way and remove the top and the star,” said Pace.
But this year, January’s super cold and blustery weather kept the tree removal project on hold.
“You have to be above 32 degrees. Otherwise the cables freeze and it's treacherous to walk around here on the roof,” said Pace.
Finally on Tuesday it was time to bring it down.
Monte Sae was one of the men from Yanke's machine shop who designed it 21 years ago.
“We just kept working at it, and ended up with a telescoping design that lies down,” said Sae.
Towering to an astonishing height of 85 feet on top of the state’s largest building.
“The first time or two we put it up, it was kind of scary,” said Sae.
The first step in bringing it down is to lower the tall mast with the hydraulic lift. It looks something like the mast from a tall ship. Within a couple of hours they safely lowered it and removed all 2700 light bulbs.
The tree has been through a lot, including this incredible lightning strike that destroyed the star. But more than anything the tree represents the start of the holidays in the city of trees.
“I look forward to seeing it up and when you drive up Capitol Boulevard or come in from the connector and see it up with the lights on it, it kind of gives you a warm fuzzy feeling. I really like that,” said Sae.
“I'm glad we're getting it down now, so we don't have Christmas in June.
Six On Your Side also wanted to know, why was the tree still lit up? US Bank says the tree towers so high in the air that it has to be lit so aircraft could see it.