By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
NOV. 14, 2025 | Today meet the person who was the first to put lights on the Christmas tree at the Historic Courthouse lawn. She is Mavis Burson, now still alert at age 96 in Lawrenceville, who was the first to suggest putting lights on the tree, back in 1987. Now on Thanksgiving afternoons, the lighting of the 38-foot spruce has turned into a major element of the holidays, with thousands attending.
She first decorated a tree at the Historic Courthouse in 1979. Her husband, the late Mahlon Burson, had just become a city Lawrenceville commissioner, and she wanted to see a decorated tree on the square.
The first Yule tree at the courthouse was donated by the Craig Family, Ms. Burson says, “But it wasn’t planted deep enough. And praise the Lord, it fell over.” This tree had decorations, but no lights. While the Historic Courthouse was being renovated, Ms. Burson decorated the former Lawrenceville City Hall. The first tree lighting was in 1987, which means the 2025 lighting will be the 38th annual celebration.
She says: “I just enjoyed the idea of lighting the tree for others to see.” She not only decorated the tree, she also had wreaths placed around the courthouse and its square. “We had the wreaths in storage, so each year we had to fluff them up to look nice, and that’s when they called me the ‘Fluff Lady.’”
Mavis Burson was born in Walton County, but her family moved to Dacula when she was two years old. She graduated from Dacula High, where she was a guard on the first girls basketball team. “We didn’t have a gym, and practiced on a court outside. We had our home games at the Lawrenceville gym.”
She first met her future husband on a prom night, in a “passing the penny” game. “I was 14 and he was 17 and we went on a penny walk down the road and back. I told my parents he was a good looking fellow.” By 1943 Mahlon was in the infantry, and in 1945 he was on his way to Japan when the war ended. His ship was diverted to the Philippines.
When back home from the war, Mahlon went looking for Mavis. “Not only that,” Mavis says, “But I was looking for him.” She had worked at the Genesco shoe plant and later for the county tag department. They married in 1948, and eventually had three children, Bill, Barbara and Mark, who all live nearby today.
Mavis has also been known as the lady who planted flowers on the right-of-way throughout Lawrenceville. “We got the city to pay for the flowers, and I would put them in different areas around the city, work them into the ground, and pull the weeds to make the area look nicer.”
Mahlon Burson after the war was the second person in Lawrenceville who worked for the telephone company, where he retired. Later he operated a tire company before passing at age 90 in 2017.
When Mavis turned 80, the Lawrenceville Council got Mavis to the city hall on a ruse, and had a surprise party for “Mavis Burson Day.” The proclamation reads in part: “For about 30 years, Mavis Burson had been a one-woman decorating committee for the annual Christmas Tree lighting….THEREFORE, we name October 2, 2009, ‘Mavis Burson Day in Lawrenceville,” and named her volunteer lifetime chair of the tree lighting.
Send Mavis a card thanking her for starting the tree lighting. Her address is 309 Simmons St., Lawrenceville, Ga. 30045.
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