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General News: Crowd Comes Out to See Santa and Tree Lights
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| The Stormy Weather Players led the singing of Christmas carols. |
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| The young children applauded the tree lighting. |
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| A nativity sits in front of the village bandstand. |
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| Michael Kelly, the official tree lighter, with his daughter, Mary (l), wife, Ellen, and Chamber president Helen Bunt. |
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| Musicians in the middle school band entertaintained the crowd. |
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| Santa got a warm welcome when he arrived. |
December 04, 2011
By Nancy Peckenham
It felt a bit like Christmas might in southern California, people putting decorations around their homes on Sunday wearing shorts and light shirts, but when the sun set and the lights came on, youngsters were just as excited about the arrival of Santa as they are on cold, snowy days.
At the village bandstand, there was no doubt that this was a lighting of the village Christmas tree, a white nativity scene set up in front. The towering spruce was decked out in lights, thanks to the work of the Storm King Engine Company and the village department of public works. The bandstand itself was garlanded in green, with wreaths and ribbons compliments of Mary Donahue.
Shortly before 5:30 pm, village historian Colette Fulton welcomed the hundred or so merrymakers, young and old, then a half-dozen members of the band at the New York Military Academy began to play some familiar Christmas songs. Members of the Stormy Weather Players led the crowd in a sing-a-long.
Several members of the village board were on hand and deputy mayor Mark Edsall led the countdown as children, star struck, waited excitedly for the tree lights to come on. After a few minutes of enjoying the Christmas tree lights, a siren could be heard in the distance and the lights of an approaching fire truck. On back, the jolly old elf himself,waved to children as he passed enroute to the firehouse, where once again secrets were shared and snacks devoured by little children, happy for the approaching holiday.
Christmas in Chadeayne Circle
Moments later, the holiday spirit burst on the scene at the Highland Engine Firehouse at Chadeayne Circle in Cornwall, where by 6 pm a crowd of young musicians was surrounded by a ring of parents and excited younger children. The Cornwall Central Middle School Band, under the direction of band director Steve Kessler, has been entertaining the tree lighting crowd for nine years and it is a highlight of the evening. In the warm evening weather, bandmaster Kessler peppered his song introductions with jokes about Santa.
This year, the Greater Cornwall Chamber of Commerce, which sponsors the lighting, invited Michael Kelly, a local resident who has raised tens of thousands of dollars for the J. Michael Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, to turn on the lights. Chamber president Helen Bunt introduced Kelly and she asked the crowd to pause when the lights came on to pray for finding a cure for Parkinson’s disease.
As soon as the tree lit up Chadeayne Circle, a fire truck arrived with Santa on top and the crowd surged around him, one girl throwing her arms around his thick waist, happy to be closer to Christmas time.
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