Montville — Have you seen the Christmas tree?

It’s hard to miss, if you cross Montville on Chesterfield Road or drive onto the I-395 southbound on-ramp of Route 163, just near the Montville Fire Department.

It looks like a classic Christmas fir, covered in red, green and gold ornaments and tinsel every year from Thanksgiving until the week after New Year’s Day. For more than 15 years, the tree has been meticulously groomed and dressed up in an anonymous act of Christmas cheer.

It didn’t always look this good.

“It was just like a Charlie Brown tree,” said Jeffrey Roderick, who admitted last week he is the anonymous decorator. The tree was about three feet tall, sitting there at one of Montville’s busiest intersections just waiting for someone to decorate it, he said.

“One day I just had some ornaments, and I dangled them on it,” said Roderick, 62.

That was 16, maybe 17 years ago. Now the tree is tall, impeccably trimmed, and nearly grazes the bottom of a highway sign that tells people where to get on I-395.

It’s been a secret, but not really a secret, that Roderick and his daughter, Theresa Quibble, are the ones that commit this act of holiday spirit once a year. He began alone, and his daughter joined in as a teenager.

It’s been an annual covert operation, done early in the morning to avoid cars and anyone who might recognize them.

Christmas was a big deal in Roderick’s family when he was growing up in Montville, he said, and he just likes spreading the joy that the holiday brings him.

“I love Christmas, my mom was big on Christmas,” he said. “I might not have always gotten what I wanted, but we always had a wonderful Christmas tree.”

Roderick and Quibble haven’t told anyone, or even acknowledged the fact that they are the ones who sneak out before sunrise on a day after Thanksgiving with hundreds of ornaments.

“It’s been a lot of years with nobody knowing that I’m the one that does it,” Roderick said.

Some people do know. Quibble said every year when friends see the tree, they post a “thank you” on her Facebook page, sometimes with a not-so-subtle Christmas tree emoji.

“I just (write) underneath, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’” she said.

But this year they’ve decided to come clean — and announce the end of the Christmas tree tradition.

The traffic on the highway ramp is getting too dangerous, even early in the morning. Roderick had an accident at work as a caretaker on Fisher’s Island that left him walking with a cane. He’s moved back to Montville full time, and enlisted the help of Quibble and her husband to decorate the tree this year, but the family can’t keep it up forever.

“I’m sad,” Quibble said. “It will definitely be weird next year not doing it.”

“But the memories will always be there,” she said. “And we’re more worried about people’s safety.”

Cars zoom by the tree almost 24 hours a day, and Roderick said too many people have pulled dangerous maneuvers — like pulling to a dead stop in the middle of the on-ramp — to thank him or toss a donation for more ornaments.

“It’s getting dangerous,” he said.

In addition to the memories, Roderick has a collection of cards, letters and ornaments that people have left in the tree for him to find when he takes down the decorations each year on Jan. 6.

“Thanks so much for putting a smile on my face every time I pass this tree,” one letter says. Another writer penned a short story about the “mysterious Christmas tree.”

“What a great gift,” the person wrote.

Roderick and Quibble aren’t ruling out the possibility of choosing a new tree to decorate in a safer location, but Roderick isn’t dropping any hints for fans of the Route 163 tree.

“They’ll just have to keep an eye out,” he said.

As for the famous tree on the highway ramp, Roderick has high hopes. He’s been trimming it for years into a perfect Christmas tree shape, and it still looks healthier than anything growing nearby.

“Maybe someday they’ll send it to Rockefeller Center,” he said. “Maybe the White House.”

m.shanahan@theday.com