Neither rain nor wind nor Apple Cup could stop the thousands of people who shook off their Thanksgiving leftover-induced food comas Friday evening to ring in the holiday season at Esther Short Park.
The Rotary Club of Vancouver hosted the 24th annual community tree lighting ceremony, complete with live music, food carts and a horse-drawn carriage.
“It’s a pretty big effort to get all of the different parts together,” said Tom Iberle, chair of the ceremony committee. “We’re trying to expand the number of activities we have for families here.”
Planning for the event starts in January and lasts all year, Iberle said, with the 10-person committee meeting monthly to coordinate. The festive horse-drawn carriage, which took riders on a loop around the park, was new this year. So were two actresses from Journey Theater playing “Frozen” characters Elsa and Anna, who performed and posed for pictures with children.
“The carriage ride line is all the way across the square, so people are really enjoying that,” Iberle said.
Eight-year-old Elliette Massey, of Vancouver, gave the carriage ride her seal of approval after hopping off and joining her parents in the lobby of the Hilton across the street. And she was a tough crowd — the family comes to the tree-lighting ceremony every year.
“It was pretty fun, actually,” Elliette said. “We’ve came here, like, six times.”
A joint school choir from Chinook and Fruit Valley Elementary performed a handful of holiday favorites, from classics like “Deck the Halls” to more contemporary tunes including “Hip Hop Reindeer.”
They were followed by COOLEY, the act from longtime Pacific Northwest crooner David Cooley, who took advantage of a musical keyboard break in “Happy Holiday” to swing dance with a young attendee. He invited the kids who sang in the elementary choir — along with anyone else who wanted to belt a tune — up to the stage to sing with him.
“You can sing along as loud as you want, as much as you want,” Cooley said. “If you sing out of tune, I don’t mind, just have fun.”
The rain poured down, but hot beverages from City Harvest Church and Kafiex Roasters Coffee Lab helped keep the crowd warm. More than 3,000 people were there by 6 p.m. for the main event.
“Of course, that’s the crowning part of it, is to have Santa show up to flip the switch,” Iberle said.
Santa entered like a jolly rock star, parting the crowd in a gaggle of elves with high-fives and shouts of “Merry Christmas!”
The tree, a 100-foot tall Douglas fir, was strung with around 25,000 lights, said Jennifer Miltenberger, rotary president.
“The tree keeps growing, so we have to add more lights every year,” Miltenberger said.
Then, the countdown. Three, two, one, lights!
Only half the tree lit up — someone should probably check on that, Iberle said — but the crowd cheered just the same.
“This is all volunteer,” Miltenberger said. “We get a lot of support from the community.”
