Local

Jack Kazanzas Star rises over Orange Avenue

ORLANDO, Fla. — It's the time of year again!

The Jack Kazanzas Star is rising up over Orange Avenue for the holiday season.

The more than 50 year tradition of raising the 600-pound golden star started in the 1950s when two competing department stores, Ivey’s on the east and Dickson & Ives on the west of Orange Avenue, joined together in 1955 to hang the Christmas star between the two.

In 1984, after the department stores had closed, Jack Kazanzas, a lifelong resident of Orlando, led a campaign to raise funds to replace the original Christmas Star that had fallen into disrepair.  In 2010, the City rewired the star which is now made up of more than 4,000 LED lights.

The Star has come to symbolize the start of the holiday season in Downtown Orlando.

See it at the corner of Orange Avenue and Central Boulevard.