Close to 20,000 people converged on the Boston Common last night to watch the 65th Annual Holiday Tree Lighting, an event record, Boston Parks and Recreation Department Commissioner Antonia Pollack said after the lighting.
“I think it was so warm lots of families brought their kids out,” she said, adding that last year’s colder lighting ceremony drew only 11,000 spectators.
Mayor Thomas Menino — with a little help from Santa Claus — flipped the switch to light a 42-foot white spruce strung with 8,000 light bulbs.
The audience sang Christmas carols and watched performances from entertainers, including world-renowned Irish Tenor Ronan Tynon, 2004 POPSearch winner Tracy Silva and the Boston Children’s Chorus.
BPRD spokeswoman Mary Hines said the city “pulls out all the stops” to offer a variety of entertainers for all ages.
“It’s a very large, expensive proposition,” she said, “but it’s who we are, and this year, I think we needed a little somethin’ somethin’.”
Menino told The Daily Free Press the lighting was a success, garnering the largest crowd he had ever seen at the event. And the upbeat audience contributed to a successful beginning to the holiday season.
Justice Grayman, 9, of Salem, said his favorite part of the show was catching a glimpse of Old Saint Nick.
“My favorite part was when Santa came and they lighted the big tree,” he said. “I loved the fireworks show.
“I’m going to ask Santa for a game for my Game Boy Micro,” he added.
“My hope is that we have a prosperous and healthy Christmas Season,” Menino said, “and that we all remember those families in our city who need help the most so that every kid . . . wakes up to a great Christmas morning.”
The 50-year-old Christmas tree, which was donated by Allen Broom and his wife, made its journey all the way from Nova Scotia last week, marking the 35th year the Canadian province has given a spruce to the city of Boston.
A small group of Nova Scotians waving flags made the two-day trek on a Cabana Tours bus just to watch the tree lighting.
“We saw it get cut down 15 miles from where we live,” Audry Faucy, 68, said. “There were a lot of people there, and they had to have cranes and wires attached to get it on the [flatbed truck].”
Elizabeth Farrell, 65, of Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, attended the lighting for the first time. Boston holds a special place in her heart, she said, because the city sent medical supplies and personnel for relief following a Dec. 17, 1917 munitions ship explosion in Halifax Harbor. She said more than 2,000 citizens died, including her husband’s grandmother.
“It devastated Halifax,” she said. “But if it hadn’t been for the people of Boston, it would have been a lot worse.”
Farrell said Boston is one of the friendliest cities she has ever been to and said many of her family members have moved here.
“Whenever I’ve traveled through Boston and they see our license plate — the police or anybody — they always say, ‘Hey, say hello to the folks back home for us,” she said.
