The City of Nampa held its Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony on Saturday night as a huge crowd gathered in downtown to enjoy a festive atmosphere.
The Christmas tree was the star of the show as the 54-foot Colorado Blue Spruce stood tall. The city moved it downtown three weeks ago and a crew of four people has been working hard to decorate it.
"There is about a mile of lights on it, which equates to about 20,000 lights," said Adam Mancini, who heads the Forestry Department for the City of Nampa.
Mancini told us all the hard worked paid off to see the community come together and gather in the Christmas spirit.
"It’s exciting, it’s a magical moment for the city of Nampa," said Mancini. "We love getting the community involved and getting the community out here to celebrate this with us."
Leading up to the lighting of the tree, people in attendance were treated to several different musical performances to get in the mood. One of those performances included the Boys and Girls Club of Canyon County Choir and a young lady named Clarissa.
"I am proud of her because she gets nervous in front of crowds, so I think she did phenomenal," said Clarissa's mother Ashley. "True," responded Clarissa.
The City of Nampa made a day of this starting with Mrs. Claus reading books in the library, they then offered free carriage rides and the Winter Wonderland Market was in full swing. It's part of what Nampa calls Shop Small Saturday to support and celebrate local businesses.
It took a lot of work to put this together and volunteers helped make it happen. However, the people of Nampa were impressed with the festivities and also the huge tree.
"This is our first tree lighting," said Ashley. "Yeah and for a huge Christmas tree like that one, it's super exciting," said Clarissa.
If you want to learn more about the effort that went into putting the tree in place and who donated the Colorado Blue Spruce. Click here for a story that our Nampa Neighborhood reporter Keith Burrell did three weeks ago.
