{"id":12872,"date":"2015-12-16T14:22:14","date_gmt":"2015-12-16T19:22:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=12872"},"modified":"2016-01-13T14:47:57","modified_gmt":"2016-01-13T19:47:57","slug":"simple-christmas-wish-marks-tree-lighting-ceremony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/simple-christmas-wish-marks-tree-lighting-ceremony\/","title":{"rendered":"Simple Christmas wish marks Tree Lighting Ceremony"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

Moderate rain at the start of the evening led to many families huddling inside the lobby of Aurora Town Hall on Wednesday night to await the start of the Town\u2019s annual Tree Lighting Ceremony.<\/p>\n

While they waited for the rains to dissipate and the crowd to form, however, those seeking shelter didn\u2019t waste any time; some of them took the opportunity to slip in a wish to the Big Man In Red through his wife, Mrs. Claus.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just wanted my family to be together,\u201d said 10-year-old Rachel Howe.<\/p>\n

It was a simple wish, but one which struck a chord with Mrs. Claus.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that is just lovely,\u201d said Mrs. Claus, reflecting on the ask. \u201cChildren often come up to me, and Christmas cookies are usually a big thing. They also ask me what I am going to be doing on Christmas Day, and, of course, I tell them I am going to be with Santa. Cooking is usually the main thing though \u2013 but\u2014\u201d she breaks off to confide in a whisper. \u201cI don\u2019t really like cooking!\u201d<\/p>\n

But thankfully there is no cooking required to fulfil Rachel\u2019s wish.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it is a great idea,\u201d said her mother, Erin. \u201cWe just love this event \u2013 the Town Crier, the tree lighting ceremony, and we love to go to the Seniors\u2019 Centre to hear Mrs. Claus tell a story.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rachel was joined at the event by her younger sister Jessica, 4, as well. A performer with the Canadian Children\u2019s Theatre Company, other commitments later that evening kept Rachel from joining her friends on stage to perform How The Grinch Stole Christmas, but she is eager to get in the role at next year\u2019s festivities.
\n\"2015-12-17-06\"
\nNew this year were five of Santa\u2019s reindeer, who took a few hours out of their training schedule to greet party-goers on the deck of the Seniors\u2019 Centre. After a pit stop at a farm in Port Arthur, they were ready to go. And they saw a few old friends along the way.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am really excited about seeing Santa\u2019s reindeer again because I haven\u2019t seen them in a couple of days,\u201d said elf Twinkle, who was booked for Wednesday night\u2019s gig by her agent Shelby McClenny. \u201cI was in the North Pole and Santa asked me personally to be here. He asked if I would be interested in working in his workshop, but specifically with Mrs. Claus and hanging out with her, and she needed a buddy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Twinkle wasn\u2019t the only buddy in Mrs. Claus\u2019 entourage last week. They were joined by Jingle, represented by agent Galen Strathdee, whose enthusiasm was in the blood.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy father was in the elfing game and I thought I would get into the family business and also help Mrs. Claus,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

By the time the rain had mostly cleared, hundreds gathered in the forecourt of Town Hall to join Mayor Geoff Dawe, Town Crier John Webster, several Councillors, and members of the Salvation Army band to count down to the tree lighting and Santa\u2019s arrival.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a well-known fact that years ago people came together on this very spot for the Aurora Tree Lighting Ceremony,\u201d said Mr. Webster. \u201cIt has become a tradition, a time to greet old friends and make new acquaintances, a time to experience the tradition of carolling, a time to pause and enjoy the lights of our collective spirits as we push back the night.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Drizzle rains down as Mayor Dawe and Santa team up to light Aurora’s Christmas tree. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":12857,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/2015-12-17-03.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-3lC","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-31 15:11:04","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12872\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}