VIDEO: Many of us this time of year probably feel a little bit like the tree that stands in the median along Interstate 17 near Sunset Point.
We're burned out.
But unlike some of us, the juniper that has become known as the Mystery Tree is still putting on its best this Christmas.
For yet another year, the tree has turned into something of a landmark for holiday travelers as parties unknown have decorated it with ornaments, keeping up a decades-long tradition that had been imperiled — and not for the first time — by wildfire. The tree has survived fires in the past, too. A 2011 wildfire burned right up to its trunk, scorching lower boughs and some lower branches.
Arizona's official state balladeer, Dolan Ellis, wrote and released a song chronicling the tree's history earlier this month.