Chandler's Tumbleweed Tree Lights Up This Year in a Park That's Only Half Rebuilt

What does Chandler's oldest holiday tradition look like when the park around it has been behind a construction fence since February?

The City has the Tumbleweed Tree Lighting Ceremony running Saturday, Dec. 5, from 4:30 to 9 p.m. at 3 S. Arizona Ave. Admission is free. Dr. A.J. Chandler Park is partway through its first full overhaul since 1986. The City expects the west side of Arizona Avenue to be finished "prior to the 2026 holiday season" and the east side by early spring 2027. So the tree lighting is also the first public look at a park most of downtown has only seen through a fence. And it's the only big event the park will hold half-old, half-new.

Fenced since February, finishing in pieces

In March, ABC15 reported that the $20 million renovation had started the month before. The park was ringed by a big blue construction fence, and downtown businesses wanted people to know they were still open. Willmeng is the City's contractor. The work covers both sides of Arizona Avenue between Buffalo and Boston streets.

Both halves are still under construction, but they're at very different stages. Here's where each side stood in the City's late-October update:

The City's own pages don't give quite the same finish date. The construction page says the west side will be done before the holiday season. The park guide says the west side "is expected to open December 2026." Dec. 5 is the first Saturday in December, so the two dates sit very close together. No ribbon-cutting has been announced. Also expect some daytime lane closures. The northbound curb lane on Arizona Avenue next to the park is closed on weekday daytimes for about two weeks while crews run electrical lines to the east side.

What the $20 million is supposed to add

The 1986 park was built for a quieter downtown. The City's December 2025 announcement says the park now hosts more than 100 events a year, including the Tumbleweed Tree Lighting and a weekly farmer's market. The redesign also responds to the apartments, offices and stores that have gone up around it. Phase one removes the old water features and adds more shade, new restrooms, more event space and a better pedestrian crossing on Arizona Avenue. It also puts the east side to real use. The plan lists event lawns, seasonal plazas, park pavilions, restroom buildings, storage rooms, large shade canopies, new park lighting, power for events and a new signal at the existing mid-block crossing.

The City has already named the new areas and described what each one is for:

• Curiosity Corner for kids: craft pop-ups, children's drum circles and storytime
• Flex Lawn for the big stuff: live music, movie nights, yoga and special events
• Stage Plaza for large community events
• The Backyard for lawn games, game carts and live music
• Heritage Point, home to the park's heritage statues, with art classes, book carts and morning tai chi
• West Commons for book clubs, game nights and the farmer's market
• West Lawn for open grass, the farmer's market and special events
• East Commons for markets, art gallery events and celebrations

Two of those are named for the west side, and one is named for the east side. The City hasn't said which side the rest are on. The farmer's market appears under both west-side areas, which suggests the west half is built for weekly use as well as December's big night. In ABC15's spring report, Kim Moyers, the City's cultural development director, described the goal this way:

"It'll be a destination driver where you can come for events, for kids to be able to be entertained with their families, to grab a cup of coffee with your friend."

A tree that's older than the park around it

The Tumbleweed Tree goes back much further than the 1986 park. According to the City's history of the tree, community groups finished the first one in the town square on Nov. 27, 1957, and it stood 30 feet tall. Today the tree averages about 33 feet tall and 18 feet wide, though its size has changed over the years. So the tree has grown only about three feet in almost seven decades. Over the same years, the downtown around it has changed so much that the park needed a full rebuild.

The City describes how each year's tree is built:

1. City staff search vacant lots and farm fields for more than 1,000 tumbleweeds. Sometimes they go as far as the Gila River Indian Reservation, and the finished tree takes 12 truckloads.
2. Workers put up a metal center pole with a cable framework and chicken wire.
3. They tie the tumbleweeds onto the frame and shape them.
4. The tree gets fire retardant, paint and glitter.
5. Lights go on last.

Visit Chandler puts the current tree at nearly 1,200 tumbleweeds. Treat both counts as round numbers. Every tree is collected by hand from whatever the fields produced that year.

The City's 2026 listing doesn't say exactly where in the park this year's tree will stand. In past seasons, the Downtown Chandler Community Partnership placed its Sugarland display in Park West, right beside the tree. If the tree goes up in its usual spot, it will sit on the side of the park that's due to finish first.

How Dec. 5 works around the construction

The event listings show some small changes for this year. The Parade of Lights runs from 6:45 to 8 p.m. the same evening, and the City describes it as hundreds of thousands of lights carried by local businesses, community organizations, families and floats. Santa's House is at Dr. A.J. Chandler Park. It's open 4:30 to 9 p.m. on Dec. 5 and returns Dec. 12, 15 and 19, with different hours each date. The Chandler Lions Club runs it, photos with Santa are free, and it closes from 6:30 to 8 p.m. while Santa rides in the parade. Kids can write letters at the event and drop them in Santa's mailbox.

The Chandler Fire Department's "Stuff the Truck" toy drive takes new, unwrapped toys from 4:30 to 9 p.m. Look for the fire engine on the east side of Arizona Avenue, north of Boston Street. That puts it right across from the half of the park that's still under construction.

Parking needs the most planning this year. The City is asking people to carpool and arrive early. Lot P2, the street parking, is closed for construction, so plan around the garages:

• P1, Overstreet Parking Garage: enter from Chandler Boulevard and California Street to Buffalo Street
• P3, Oregon Street Parking Garage: enter from California, Oregon or Chicago streets
• P4, City Hall Parking Garage: enter from Frye Road and Washington Street
• P5, San Tan Regional Court surface lot

If you live close enough to bike, Frye Road should be finished in time. The City's protected bike lane project runs about 2.5 miles, from roughly half a mile west of Arizona Avenue to the Paseo Trail. Bollards and pavement markers were scheduled to start going in Nov. 2, and the City expects the work to be substantially complete before Thanksgiving.

Before December, another reopening up the street

The park isn't the only public space on Arizona Avenue reopening this fall. AZFamily reported that the Chandler Center for the Arts reopened after a $3 million renovation that added new theater seating and upgraded the stage and rigging. The center is at 250 N. Arizona Ave., a short walk north of the park.

November fills the gap before the tree goes up. On Saturday, Nov. 7, the City holds its free Diwali: Festival of Lights at 10 a.m. in the Chandler City Hall courtyard, 175 S. Arizona Ave. Earlier that morning, Chandler's Celebration of Arbor Day runs from 9 to 11 a.m. at Folley Memorial Park, 601 E. Frye Road. After the tree lighting, Community Nights in the Courtyard, Holiday Edition, is set for Thursday, Dec. 17, from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Chandler Community Center, 125 E. Commonwealth Ave. It's free.

So by Dec. 5, Chandler should have a renovated theater on the north end of Arizona Avenue, a new west half of its main park and a new bike route on Frye Road. The east half of the park, where the canopy trusses were still going up in late October, is the one piece still scheduled for spring 2027.

If the new park has you rethinking what it's worth to live within walking distance of downtown Chandler, Jennifer and Sheryl at Jennifer Patnode would be glad to walk you through how downtown is changing and what that means for your plans. Request a private consultation, and we'll start with what matters most to you.