City celebrates season with two more tree lightings
Lights on the lake, decoration contest also this weekend
Christmas celebrations are continuing in the city with two tree lightings and a slew of holiday activities this weekend.
A tree lighting was held in Convention Hall last weekend, drawing a huge crowd to the historic landmark’s Holiday Bazaar, which will be open for shopping on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays through December.
Tonight, the city will hold its tree lighting ceremony at 5:30 p.m. in Fireman’s Park at Main Street and Sunset Avenue.
And tomorrow evening, the Chamber of Commerce tree lighting will be held from 6 to 9 p.m.
The chamber is sponsoring several holiday activities throughout the weekend, starting tomorrow afternoon.
• Face painting and hot cocoa will be held Saturday from 3 to 5 p.m. with Santa and Frosty the Snowman at DJ’s Delights on Mattison Avenue. DJ’s has a tree in the window, decorated with ornaments. They will be accepting donations for hurricane relief.
• Lights on the Lake will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. as a show of solidarity with other Shore towns during hurricane relief.
“We wanted to find a way to celebrate teh fact that Asbury Park was incredibly lucky during Hurricane Sandy, but we recognize the rest of the Shore towns have a huge challenge ahead of them,” said Jackie Pappas, executive director of the Chamber of Commerce. “We wanted to take the challenge and put it into the universe that we’ll help lead the way with lights in Asbury Park.”
Lights will be released onto Wesley Lake, the body of water separating Asbury Park and Ocean Grove.
“It shows the sisterhood we have with our sister city Ocean Grove and we hope it will extend to other cities,” Pappas said.
• The Christmas tree lighting is slated for 6 to 9 p.m. in Press Plaza and will include music provided by 30 members of the cast of Premier Theatre Company’s “Scrooge” production. They will don their costumes and sing Christmas carols and Santa Claus will also make an appearance.
A handmade star will be placed atop the tree. Chamber member Syracuse Signs created the star for the 20-foot White Pine [pictured above], which was donated by Meadowview Farm in Wall. Birdsall Engineering owns the farm, which provided volunteers to install the tree in Press Plaza.
The tree will be adorned with “lights and a couple of special surprises,” Pappas said. The lights can be turned off and on each night by remote control to conserve electricity.
The chamber is also asking attendees to dress in red or white for a panoramic photo of the crowd to be taken after the tree lighting. John Vigg of Gallery 13 has volunteered to take the photo, and he will shoot from the top of the Steinbach building.
• On Sunday, there will be a Downtown Window Decorating Contest. The Chamber will select the grand prize winner, while shoppers are invited to vote for their favorite decorations. Votes will be collected at Pure, on Cookman Avenue and Bond Street. Voting is free and all voter are entered to win a $25 gift card to the Wonder Bar.
The grand prize for businesses is a $50 gift card to Moonstruck. First runner up receives a $25 gift card to Moonstruck.
“We are so very excited and we hope people will come out and enjoy the weekend and enjoy everything Asbury Park has to offer,” Pappas said.
