Woodlawn Regional Park has been transformed into Christmas light show.
Christmas in the Park was held on Sunday afternoon, with warm hot chocolate and hotdogs being served. Children got to do a bit ice skating, there were multiple blazing fire pits keeping people warm and even Santa was inside listening to what kids wanted for Christmas.
“The event … has been absolutely excellent so far we have had a wonderful turnout. I think we have had almost 600 people in attendance,” said park manager Joanne Schulte.
A fireworks display began at 6 p.m. Sunday night also marked the opening night for the Festival of Lights, in which local businesses and other organizations have Christmas lights illuminating the campgrounds.
“Christmas in the Park started last year and this is the first year we have done the Festival of Lights,” said Schulte. “The first was also very successful and we are very happy we thought of having this beautiful event for the community.”
There was no entrance fee to come to the event, which helped bring out the massive crowd that night. The hot chocolate and hotdogs were served to the public and those were also free; the buns ran out before the hotdogs did.
“We didn’t charge anything because we just wanted people to come out and enjoy a really great festive experience additionally it was also nice to have people come out and enjoy Woodlawn park because some people don’t even know what is down here,” said Schulte.
“We have been so excited this year and we were already talking about plans tonight that we can implement next Christmas and going forward we want to have the event remain free,” she added.
Planning the activities was very difficult, with only one past year to use as experience. Schulte wanted to have all in one Christmas event at the park.
“We wanted the activities associated with the Woodlawn Christmas celebrations to be merged with a festival of lights so we could have one big event that everyone can have fun at,” said Schulte.
The event was overall very successful and it filled it purpose of celebrating Christmas and bringing the community together.
“Our main purpose was build on what we started and bring people together and we hope to do this every year for a long time,” she added.
The Festival of Lights will continue until Jan. 1.
