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Evan Carter is a World Series champion at 21 years old. This weekend he will come home to a celebration only a few in this town have been honored with. He has been invited to light the Fraser Fir on Saturday – a Christmas season opener. Then, he will be honored with a homecoming parade down Elk Avenue along with the Elizabethton High School Band, which just days ago brought home a state championship.

Carter is a hometown boy who has made Elizabethton proud. He played baseball at Elizabethton High School, where he was an All-Conference selection in Baseball in all the seasons he played. He appeared in just three games his senior year before the COVID-19 pandemic caused an abrupt end to the season.

Upon his high school graduation, Carter was selected in the second round of the baseball draft by the Texas Rangers, and he has not disappointed.

Hometown residents have every reason to be proud of Carter. He was the second youngest player to ever start and bat third in the first game of a World Series.  Then he became the fifth youngest player to hit cleanup in a World Series game. His Texas teammates have dubbed him “The Little Savior.”
Carter suddenly became a major player on a star-studded Texas club, and he’s done so just a few years removed from being under the radar in the high school draft.

Carter has made his hometown very proud, and he is very deserving of the honor of being chosen to light the town’s Christmas tree this evening.

The Fraser Fir, which carries the title of Elizabethton’s official Christmas tree, has some fame, too. It supposedly is the world’s tallest decorated tree at 78 feet tall. The tree is located in the heart of Elizabethton in front of the 1861 Folsom House and was planted by Henderson Folsom, a Confederate Major in the Civil War.

Since a typical Fraser Fir tree grows to about 40 to 50 feet, townsfolk wondered just how special their 78-foot Fraser Fir was. After searching for similar trees, this tree was declared the tallest Fraser Fir in the world. The tree was first lighted in 1988, making this the 35th year the tree has been lighted.

Both Evan Carter and the Fraser Fir are very special to Elizabethton, so it’s only appropriate the two are together for this year’s tree lighting ceremony.

Saturday is a special day for Elizabethton, and we urge the community to come out and celebrate not only the tree lighting, but Evan Carter’s success on the baseball diamond…a star-studded kickoff to this year’s holiday season.