Photos and text by Daniel Krieger

As the holiday season gets underway, Christmas decorations are festooning the city. And on Tuesday evening, in front of Lincoln Center at Dante Park (West 63rd Street), the Lincoln Square Business Improvement District kicked off its Magical Lights programming.

This year, there’s an expanded array of attractions. Along with last year’s interactive sound-sensitive lights adorning the park’s London Plane trees, music will now be played nightly from speakers hidden in the trees — recordings of Jazz at Lincoln Center and the Met Opera – which the lights react to. These lights will also be on display at Richard Tucker Park on West 66th Street. And, from West 60th to 70th streets, 36 trees on the Broadway Mall will be illuminated.

As twilight approached, an eager crowd gathered. Locals came for the performers, to drink hot chocolate served by Rosa Mexicano, and to celebrate the turning on of the lights that officially marks the start of the holiday season. The jubilant spectators circled the stage area next to the Movado clock tower.

The festivities began with caroling by the Kaufman Music Center’s Special Music School Chorus, which was accompanied by the antics of The Department of Spectacle, a playful circus group with jugglers, a unicyclist, and a mischievous stilt walker with large angelic wings.

Lots of local media showed up, including ABC Eyewitness News, and in the run-up to the lighting, Gale Brewer went up to a podium and wished everyone well along with other speakers, including Monica Blum, the president of the Lincoln Square BID, and Nina Pineda, a broadcast journalist with WABC-TV. 

Then came the moment everyone was waiting for – switching on the lights. As light snow momentarily began to fall, a group of two dozen children led the countdown from seven to one. Then the crowd erupted into boisterous midnight-on-New-Years-Eve style cheering as the lights went on, followed by a shower of confetti as the Saints of Swing launched into Christmas classics, like Santa Claus is Coming to Town.

For the rest of the month, and into January, every day at 4:30 p.m. the lights will go on and the music will play, explained Monica Blum, the BID’s president, who was orchestrating the holiday season kickoff.

“We want to bring people to Lincoln Square to create a sense of community here, which is really what we’re all about,” she said. “I’ve been doing this for 29 years and the whole idea is to bring the neighborhood together.” Surveying the large turnout and festive scene, she observed that they had once again achieved that goal. 

After the lighting, Kristy Ledley, a local mom who had come with her husband and toddler, expressed appreciation for the family-friendly event.

“I like that it’s not a typical Christmas tree lighting ceremony, which makes it stand out from the other tree lightings in the city,” she said as she looked up at the twinkling lights. “These lights add pizzazz to the trees and light up the square really well.”

On seven nights this month, the caroling group the Fabulous Fezziwigs will perform in various spots around the neighborhood donned in their signature Victorian costumes (December 4th, 5th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 17th, and 18th.) Check the Lincoln Square BID on Instagram for time and place updates. Also, the third annual WinteRamble Workshop and Procession will take place on December 18th. To register to take part in the WinteRamble Workshop and Procession, click here, and to learn more about Magical Lights events happening this month go here.

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