Light Up Okotoks is not only the start of the holiday season in the community, it’s also one of the big days of the year for many Okotoks families.

Revellers check out the reindeer in downtown Okotoks during the Light Up Okotoks festivities. The holiday season in Okotoks will kick off this weekend with the annual Light Up Okotoks event on Friday evening. Wheel file photo

“We have little kids, six and eight years old, and ever since they were little in strollers we would do Light Up. It’s a huge deal for them, they look forward to it,” said Okotoks resident Bev Carlson. “Even before we had kids we’d still come down here and participate.”

Light Up Okotoks 2009 will be held this weekend with events on Friday and Saturday.

The main event for the evening will be the lighting of the town’s Christmas Tree at the Olde Towne Okotoks Plaza on Friday at 7 p.m.

People are encouraged to turn on the Christmas lights on their homes this weekend as well to signify the beginning of the holiday season.

Carlson has been participating in the event with her family and behind the scenes for more than a dozen years — even as a sponsor for the horse drawn wagons that whisk people through the downtown streets all evening.

The wagons have been a favourite of Carlson and her family for years, but her children have added a few new wrinkles to their favourite list in recent years.

“My daughter’s getting a little older now and she really loves the craft sales,” she said. “Over the last couple years my son just loves the reindeer.”

Carlson said she likes the fact the fireworks are held at 9 p.m., a time she said is perfect for families with young children to be able to watch.

For event co-ordinator Marg Cox, watching the smiles on the faces of the hundreds of families that fill downtown Okotoks is one her favourite things about the event.

“It’s so magical and it’s so enchanting. I just love seeing everybody downtown, enjoying the evening, being neighbourly and just bringing the whole community together,” she said.

She said the event has evolved and grown in size over the years.

“I’ve been working here since 1983 and there’s always been some sort of Christmas event at this time of year and I know it was going before that,” she said. “It’s bigger and better, more exciting and more fun and more mystical and magical.”

The new downtown plaza will be a centre of activity for the night featuring live music from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. Other performers will take to a second stage set up at Music Centre Canada from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Jolly Old St. Nick will be making an early appearance in Okotoks on Friday as well.

“Santa will be making his appearance. He’s going to be at the plaza stage and be there for the light up and then he’ll meander down to the Okotoks Art Gallery,” said Cox.

Parents are encouraged to bring their own cameras to get pictures of their children with Santa outside The Station Cultural Centre. His reindeers Newton and Normie will also join Santa.

People will be able to get a head start on their Christmas shopping as downtown businesses will be open late into the evening and craft shows are scheduled for both Friday and Saturday.

The year the event will feature “18 wheels of Christmas”, a fundraiser to help feed less fortunate families led by trucking firm Rosenau Transport. An 18-wheel tractor-trailer is lit up for the holidays and criss-crosses the province to support local food banks. The truck will make an Okotoks stop on Friday evening. All donations of food and money received by the truck will support the Okotoks Food Bank.

The evening’s festivities will be capped off with fireworks at Lineham Park at 9 p.m.

The Town will close Elizabeth Street to vehicle traffic from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.

The fun continues on Saturday. Events include a gingerbread house contest at Sobeys, carriage rides in the Servus credit union parking lot, a parking lot hockey tournament downtown and more shopping. The Okotoks Recreation Centre will offer free skating and public swimming at various times throughout the day.

dpatterson@okotoks.greatwest.ca

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