HUMBOLDT — The City of Humboldt is getting into the Christmas season and hopes everyone will join them with two new events coming up in December.
Dec. 7 will see the community come together for the Community Tree Lighting ceremony at City Hall.
It has been 13 years since the City of Humboldt hosted such a ceremony but this was something organizer and Penny Lee, the city’s communications manager, wanted to bring back to celebrate the holidays and bring the community together.
“We need more events like this in the community where it’s all just fellowship and people gathering around and getting into the spirit of the season.â€
Festivities will start around 4:30 p.m. with sunset being around 4:45 p.m. that day. Over a thousand brand new lights will adorn the tree in front of City Hall with Mayor Rob Muench flipping the switch to bring the lights to life.
The St. Andrew’s Anglican Church Choir will be providing the Christmas carols for the event and the Humboldt Co-op will be providing the hot chocolate.
While Lee says she hopes the event will draw people downtown for their Christmas shopping at local businesses, this year’s event is being put on by the city and will hopefully grow in the years to come.
Nominations are also now open for the Holiday Decorating Contest.
While previous years saw decoration contests through other organizations in Humboldt, Lee says this was a year that the city wanted to take on the event and get people having fun and being creative with their decorations.
Residents can go online to nominate either themselves or a decorative neighbour with each entry being considered for one of four categories: most creative, best theme, best overall, and the people's choice.
Nominations forms are available at humboldt.ca/humboldt-holiday-decorating-contest.
Judging will be done by City of Humboldt representatives on Dec. 19 at 7 PM. People’s Choice voting will open up on Dec. 9. Lee hopes both events will get people into the Christmas spirit.