Thank you to everyone who joined us Saturday, Dec. 8, 2018 for our 22nd Annual Christmas Tree Lighting and all our holiday festivities. We had a fantastic day celebrating with our community.
We started off the morning with our Jingle Bell 5K Fun Run and 1-mile free kids walk/run. We saw some fantastic costumes and loved seeing everyone stick around after the race to roast some s’mores and enjoy the hot chowder courtesy of Ivar’s Restaurants. Thank you to Costco for also supplying us with free cookies after the run!
Between the run and the Parade of Lights people strolled through our Candy Cane Lane Holiday market, checking out the unique gifts made by local artists. Kids had a chance to play minute to win it games, visit with Santa and snap a picture in the Robi’s Camera photo booth. There was live entertainment throughout the day in the Council Chambers and we saw a record number of children enter the Bricks 4 Kidz LEGO building contest — congratulations to all the first and second place winners!
The evening concluded with the Parade of Lights, sponsored by the Lakewood Arts Commission and Lakewood Chamber of Commerce. We saw a record number of participants in this year’s parade, including soldiers and Strykers from Joint Base Lewis-McChord, as well as boy and girl scout troops, Clover Park School District students, local businesses and our City Council members.
At the conclusion of the parade members of the 8th Squadron, 1st U.S. Calvary presented the colors for the National Anthem — a special treat. Then Honorary Lakewood Police Chief Maddie Middleton helped countdown to the tree lighting with Mayor Don Anderson, flipping the switch to cheers from the crowd.
We loved seeing everyone celebrate the tree lighting and hope you had as much fun as we did. We can’t wait to do it again next year!
A big thank you to the Lakewood Chamber of Commerce, the Lakewood Arts Commission, our area businseses that participated in the parade and those who were impacted by the day’s festiviites, event sponsors and partners including St. Claire’s Hospital, Discount Direct Furniture and Mattress, Fleet Feet Sports, Ivar’s Restaurants, Drangsholt Orthodontics, Panera Bread, Pizza Studio, Starbucks and The Original House of Donuts.
And thank you to the Lakewood Lions for helping Santa find his way to Lakewood from the North Pole so that our children could have a chance to get their picture taken and tell the “big man” what they want for Christmas.
Click here to see the Facebook photo album of the parade and tree lighting and click here to see the Facebook photo album of the Jingle Bell 5K.
Ray R says
Thank you for doing it on a Saturday, instead of Friday night!. It was nice to be able to attend.