Holiday Nights of Lights switches on Dec. 3

After a year of tight budgets and some uncertainty about whether town-sponsored events would happen, Gilbert’s second Holiday Nights of Lights celebration kicks off Thursday evening with a tree lighting, skating on an ice-like rink and lots of singing, dancing and music playing. 

“The event will have a community feel, because the entertainment will be from the community,” said Rene Carlin, Gilbert recreation supervisor. 

The event is building into a new tradition for the community; about 2,500 people attended last year’s, Gilbert spokeswoman Beth Lucas said.

The celebration will take over the grassy area outside of the Gilbert Municipal Center, 50 E. Civic Center Drive, where the grove of planted trees will be strung with holiday lights and will include a 28-foot Christmas tree and more ground displays. The lights will be on display through Jan. 3. 

The decorations will be lit in ceremony by Mayor John Lewis at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, just in time for Santa’s arrival to a serenade by Patterson Elementary School’s choir. Other youth groups will perform throughout the night. Hot dogs, hot beverages and sweets like kettle corn and roasted almonds will be sold by vendors, and photos with Santa will cost $3, though consultations with the big guy will be free. 

The festivities will run from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m., but the 1,800-square-foot skating rink, sponsored by Chick-Fil-A, will be open 30 minutes earlier and later than the other activities. The rink is a plastic sheet covered by a coating that allows ice skaters to glide across the surface. 

Carlin said the surface could be perfect for the inexperienced desert skaters likely to be frequenting this rink. “It’s been described to me as the equivalent of skating on a frozen pond, which is 10 percent to 15 percent slower than pure ice,” she said. 

The budget for the opening-night party is still being finalized, but Carlin said Gilbert is working to keep it as close as possible to last year’s budget, which was a little more than $4,900. 

The monthlong lighting display will cost $26,800, an expense debated by the Town Council in September before it voted unanimously to go ahead with this year’s display, partly because the town’s contract with Mesa-based Christmas Light Decorators carried a $14,000 cancellation penalty. 

Gilbert spent about the same amount of money on last year’s light display, which was located entirely at the Civic Center. This year, some of the lights have been moved up to Water Tower Plaza in response to downtown merchants suggesting that another location would be better for businesses. 

The park around Gilbert’s historic water tower is on Page Avenue about half a block west of Gilbert Road, so the lights won’t be very visible to most drivers passing through downtown. 

Mary Ellen Fresquez, vice-chairwoman of the Gilbert Redevelopment Commission and owner of the recently opened Gallery 255 on Gilbert Road, said the commission was thankful to have part of the display, but it hopes to see more in the future. 

“I agree with our former chairman’s statement that in today’s economy, we’re happy to get everything that we could,” she said. “But from a merchant’s standpoint, I would hope that the council will keep it in their thoughts that downtown is still dark. Maybe as soon as the economy turns around they can start considering what they can do to bring more street traffic.”