{"id":22400,"date":"2018-12-08T16:16:52","date_gmt":"2018-12-08T21:16:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=22400"},"modified":"2018-12-08T16:16:52","modified_gmt":"2018-12-08T21:16:52","slug":"festive-season-continues-with-lighting-of-auroras-official-christmas-tree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/festive-season-continues-with-lighting-of-auroras-official-christmas-tree\/","title":{"rendered":"Festive Season continues with lighting of Aurora\u2019s official Christmas Tree"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Hundreds of people \u2013 the young and the young-at-heart \u2013 bundled up Friday night for the twelfth annual Aurora Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony.
\nHeld in the forecourt of Town Hall, a Friday night ceremony was a first for Aurora, a first that paved the way for another first: the start of a three-day long Christmas Market outside the Aurora Seniors\u2019 Centre.
\nThe ceremony was led by Geoff Dawe in his last official act as Aurora\u2019s Mayor.
\n\u201cThis is the last night of the 2014 \u2013 2018 term,\u201d Mr. Dawe told the crowd before inviting returning, incoming and outgoing Council members to the stage and thanking event sponsors Aurora Home Hardware, Mead Electric, Desjardins, Rent Source and RBC. \u201cThe holidays are always a time for joy, family and friends. It is also a time to reflect, perhaps, on those who are less fortunate than we are.\u201d
\nWith that, Mr. Dawe handed the microphone over to Major Brian Bishop of the Salvation Army who reminded attendees of the importance of the Salvation Army\u2019s Kettle Drive, led dignitaries through the lighting of the Peace Candle, and the audience through a round of festive Christmas carols.
\nElsewhere, families were able to polish off a bit of Christmas shopping at the Market, which set up huts, tents, and even an igloo in the parking lot outside the Aurora Seniors\u2019 Centre. Market stalls continued inside where Mrs. Claus held court reading \u2018Twas The Night Before Christmas before a full house of eager youngsters.
\nCraft tables were busy in the next room while, outside, families lined up into the Aurora Arboretum for a chance to see some of Santa\u2019s reindeer inside historic Petch house.
\nFire jugglers capped off Friday\u2019s outdoor entertainment, attractions throughout the weekend included performances from the Salvation Army Band, the Borealis Big Band, and Marquee Theatrical Productions.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hundreds of people \u2013 the young and the young-at-heart \u2013 bundled up Friday night for the twelfth annual Aurora Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":22385,"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_feature_clip_id":0,"_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":[27,4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-and-culture","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-5Pi","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-13 15:18:43","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/2018-12-06-02.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22400","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=22400"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22400\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}