Holiday Light-up in Downtown Edmonton

My posts are acquiring a bit of a scattered chronological order lately, but as some of my intended subjects have passed the window of timeliness, I thought I’d just continue back and forth as appropriate.

On Saturday, Sir Winston Churchill Square played host to Downtown Edmonton’s annual Holiday Light-up celebration, as well as Christmas on the Square.

Free sleigh rides for children

I had intended on visiting the square for the event last year, but didn’t make it. For whatever reason, I expected a larger tent to house the vendors, instead of what I found – tables scattered between three smaller tents. While it may have made the spaces easier to heat, there was not much room to move, and I’m certain more than a few breakable items fell prey to the congested movement of the crowd.

Tents

Cute Lola Canola honey bears

After 5pm, Mayor Mandel and Santa came out on stage to flick the switch on the 83 foot Christmas tree, in addition to the Bright Nights fixtures on the east part of the Square. Most impressive, however, were the fireworks – set in tune to music (something the New Year’s committee has claimed to have been doing, but hasn’t actually put this into practice), I was amazed they could have set off the pyrotechnics with such little space between the stage the the Winspear to play with.

Tree

Bright Nights display

Fireworks

Churchill Square

Mack took some videos of the fireworks with his handy Flip, in case you missed the event, and has uploaded all of his pictures onto Flickr.

Also, Bright Nights at Hawrelak Park begins on Friday, while the light-up celebration at the Legislature takes place on December 4. Incredible how quickly the holiday season is approaching, isn’t it?