‘Beautiful night’: Wiscasset tree-lighting draws crowd, praise
The mild, dry weather Dec. 5 may have helped this year’s attendance. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Wiscasset schoolchildren entertain the crowd with holiday songs. SUSAN JOHNS/WIscasset Newspaper
Frosty stops to pose for a photo with Martin Willebeek-LeMair and his and wife Robin Willebeek-LeMair’s golden retrievers. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Event volunteer Chellie Pontau serves cocoa inside First Congregational Church following Wiscasset’s tree-lighting ceremony Dec. 5. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Jeff Grosser of Wiscasset emcees the town’s tree-lighting ceremony Dec.5 from the railing of First Congregational Church. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
The mild, dry weather Dec. 5 may have helped this year’s attendance. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Wiscasset schoolchildren entertain the crowd with holiday songs. SUSAN JOHNS/WIscasset Newspaper
Frosty stops to pose for a photo with Martin Willebeek-LeMair and his and wife Robin Willebeek-LeMair’s golden retrievers. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Event volunteer Chellie Pontau serves cocoa inside First Congregational Church following Wiscasset’s tree-lighting ceremony Dec. 5. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Jeff Grosser of Wiscasset emcees the town’s tree-lighting ceremony Dec.5 from the railing of First Congregational Church. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Gabe Major gave Wiscasset’s tree-lighting two thumbs up Saturday night: One thumb, about getting to meet Santa, moments earlier; one more, in approval of the lit tree.
The Wiscasset 5-year-old let his thumb do the talking while he chewed the candy cane Santa had given him.
Major, parents Eric and Ashley Major and her mother Susan Wood, also of Wiscasset, were part of a large turnout for the annual event that again featured Wiscasset students’ holiday singing; Santa arriving by a fire truck that stopped in front of Wiscasset Public Library so he could walk up the common; his friends Frosty and Rudolph mingling with the crowd; and the countdown to the lighting.
The tree has grown in the past year, emcee Jeff Grosser observed after the colored lights came on, to event-goers’ cheers. It was a beautiful, beautiful night, he said earlier. He couldn’t recall better weather for the tree-lighting in the two decades he’s been part of it, Grosser told attendees.
Asked why her family came, Ashley Major said: “’Cause it’s our town!” The Santa hats she, her husband and mother had on were her idea.
Wood moved to town last year to be near her family. Saturday night’s tree-lighting was her first one in Wiscasset. “Very, very nice. I love it,” she said.
“We just wanted to get into the holiday spirit,” Lynne Kontrath said about her and husband Gordon Kontrath turning out for Saturday’s festivities. They had seen a Wiscasset Newspaper article that week encouraging attendance, Gordon Kontrath added.
The couple, who moved to Wiscasset from New Jersey, stood facing the First Congregational Church steps where the students were singing under the direction of Wiscasset School Department’s Carole Drury. The Kontraths were enjoying seeing how Wiscasset celebrates the season. “We’re from a town of about 88,000 people,” Gordon Kontrath said.
One of the singers was Olivia Peaslee, 13. She’s been in the chorus for the tree-lighting at least a few years, she and mother Heather Demeney said inside the church afterward.
Peaslee’s favorite song to sing of all the holiday hits is “Rudolph,” she said. The series of songs take a great deal of preparation. “We practice a lot at school.”
Earlier in the evening, Peaslee’s grandmother Robin Willebeek-LeMair took a photo of husband Martin Willebeek-LeMair and their golden retrievers with Frosty.
“They’re very excited,” she said about the dogs’ enthusiasm for the night out with the couple.
After the tree-lighting, Grosser invited celebrants into the church for cocoa and treats, then concluded the ceremony: “Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Holidays, to everyone.”
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