Holiday Lights Showcase tree lighting 2020-12-04
Local News

Holiday Lights Showcase 2020 video celebrates the season safely

At 7 p.m. on the first Friday in December for years, Santa Claus emerged from a Homewood fire truck to push the big white button that lights up the Irwin Park holiday tree. This year was no exception, but instead of gathering in a dense crowd, singing caroles and loudly counting down from 10 for tree lighting, Homewood and Flossmoor area residents were able to watch a recorded event, the Homewood-Flossmoor Park District’s Holiday Lights 2020 Showcase.

 

At 7 p.m. on the first Friday in December for years, Santa Claus emerged from a Homewood fire truck to push the big white button that lights up the Irwin Park holiday tree.

This year was no exception, but instead of gathering in a dense crowd, singing caroles and loudly counting down from 10 for tree lighting, Homewood and Flossmoor area residents were able to watch a recorded event, the Homewood-Flossmoor Park District’s Holiday Lights 2020 Showcase.

The show still included holiday music, with performances by the Churchill School fifth grade choir, performing “Be a Candle of Hope”; the Grand Prairie Children’s Choir, singing “We Wish You a Merry Christmas”;  and the Homewood-Flossmoor High School Choir Viking Ensemble doing a rendition of “Somewhere in My Memory” from the movie “Home Alone.”

Homewood Mayor Richard Hofeld also delivered a holiday greeting.

“With the promise of a COVID-19 vaccine being available, let us remember this holiday as one of hope and of wishes for a healthy and happy new year for us all,” he said.

A collage of holiday photos was presented by the village of Flossmoor.

For the finale of the show, H-F parks Board of Comissioners President Dallas Colins provided greetings from the park district while one of Santa’s elves capered around the holiday tree in the background.

“We realize this isn’t the most ideal way to kick off the holiday season, but this year hasn’t been quite ideal, either,” she said. “All of us here at the park district miss seeing your smiling faces at our programs, special events and facilities and we’re counting down the days until we can be together again and make more memories from preschoolers to seniors.”

With that, Santa Claus and the elf joined Collins for the countdown for lighting of the tree.

The next community holiday activity will be Flossmoor’s Holiday Lights Parade.

The village’s annual Winterfest event was canceled, but the village will bring holiday cheer to residents from 4:30 to 5:15 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 11, with a parade of vehicles decorated in festive fashion. A map of the parade route is available online.

The Flossmoor Volunteer Fire Department did a similar parade through the village to help residents celebrate the Fourth of July.

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