More than 20 years after it became a Christmas icon, a famed live oak tree in Wilmington was getting plenty of national attention.

Dubbed the World's Largest Living Christmas Tree , its lights were bright again in 1951 for the TV screen. According to a Nov. 30, 1951, story in The Wilmington News, film of the tree was sent to a station in Washington, D.C.

It was set to show on NBC and become an afternoon and evening program on either Dec. 6 or 8. The network extended into Boston with an audience of about 95 million.

The film was taken in 1950 by the Wilmington Junior Chamber of Commerce. Along with views of the tree, it showed Santa Claus distributing candy and gifts to children and choral singers. Pictures were taken by famed photographer Hugh Morton.

Its first major TV fame came in

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