The Saldanha's including Douglas Saldanha (in picture) and his sister Twila got the Christmas tree from their neighbours when it got to 7 feet and was too tall for their balcony. So, they have seen it grow from 7 feet to 70 feet over the last 55 years. The tree, which he says grows about a little less than 2 feet every year, is approximately 72 feet now.

While they were able to decorate it fully initially, after it reached the first floor, they could only decorate it till their hands could reach it. So, it was like a half-decorated tree. After which his sister got married and moved to Houston in the US.

However, things took a turn for the worse in the early 2000s when she was diagnosed with cervical cancer. It was a bad period of two-three years, where she went back into remission, but it came back with vengeance and was given only two-three years to live and finally passed away in 2005. However, her last wish was to see the Christmas tree decorated so much that she could see it from heaven. The reasoning being that when she goes up, she won’t know our location, but the Christmas tree would be like a lighthouse to know where we are. Since then, he has been decorating it every year to fulfil his promise.

Today, he spends approximately Rs 3-4 lakhs every year. The cost includes not only the decorations but also the labour involved as he employs workers to do it fully with the help of a bamboo scaffolding till the top for their safety and to support the tree. He starts decorating the tree in November for Diwali and concludes in January for Republic Day, where the entire tree is in the colours of the flag. With a mix of Santa Claus and other decorations, the tree is illuminated by almost 20,000 lights.

Douglas Saldanha stays overseas for eight months and returns to India for four months every year only to keep his promise. Now, he plans to take it a step further and turn the tree into something much larger to call it “the tree of hope”. It is to empower people who have lost hope and have a session with them to help them in some manner. Since he plans to do it once every month, he is currently training a small team to carry it out in the future.