The sky was aglow with fireworks and Christmas lights last night at the Long Beach Terrace Theater for the City’s seventh annual tree lighting.
The City’s Christmas tree, coated in rainbow ornaments, towered over a crowd of onlookers donning sequined antlers and Christmas hats. To the edges of the fountain, children took rides on a miniature train and got their pictures taken with the man of the season, Mr. Claus himself.
“This celebration brings a deeper meaning of community. It affirms the resilience of our city. Each single lightbulb reflects an individual ability, a uniqueness to illuminate alone,” Pastor Gregory Sanders said to the crowd. “But notice how it shines so much brighter when inclusive of the other lights and beams even brighter collectively.”
There were performances by the SoCal Brass Consortium, the SoCal VoCals acapella group and Nutcracker dancers, the full performance of which is now running at the Terrace Theater. Children gathered around the stage to watch ballet dancers in full puppet regalia dance daintily across the stage.
The Nov. 30 event was the first public tree lighting in over two years. Last year’s event took place virtually due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Mayor Robert Garcia took the stage with city leaders to give a speech and lead the crowd in a moment of silence.
“I want everyone to know that it has been, we all know, a very very hard last year and a half. I just want to take one moment as we begin to celebrate Christmas and the holiday season to also just take a second and reflect on all of the loss that we’ve had in our community this holiday,” Garcia said. “We’re going to miss a lot of people.”
Later, after a ceremonious countdown from ten, Garcia pulled a lever and the tree was lit, followed by a firework show spewing from the top of the Convention Center. Shortly after, fake snow rained down on residents from all angles as Christmas music blasted from the stage.
Adults and children alike danced to the music, their hair picking up foamy flakes of snow caught by the light of a laser light show as it floated into the audience.
