DOWNTOWN — Chicago’s Christmas Ship arrives this weekend at Navy Pier.
The ship is carrying Christmas trees that will be given for free to more than 1,200 local families, according to a Coast Guard news release. Chicagoans can stop by the pier starting 8:30 a.m. to watch the trees get unloaded.
There will also be performances from a local choir, members of the Coast Guard Academy Glee Club, the Coast Guard Silent Drill Team and Lee Murdock.
Fee tours of the ship, the Coast Guard Cutter Mackinaw, will be available 1:30-3:30 p.m. Friday and 1:30-4 p.m. Saturday.
The trees will be distributed to community nonprofits, which will then give them away, according to the Coast Guard.
The trees are grown in northern Michigan before being brought to Chicago. This is the 23rd year of the Christmas Ship tradition; more than 26,000 trees have been given away since it started, according to the Coast Guard.