COLUMBUS, Ind. — A community organization is hoping to bring some Christmas spirit to downtown Columbus this weekend.
The 9th Street Park Neighborhood Watch will host its “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” event on Friday. The celebration will begin at 6 p.m., with attendees meeting at The Commons and caroling all the way to Columbus City Hall.
“Once we get to city hall, Santa Claus will be arriving on the Stutz fire truck from Station 1,” said neighborhood watch coordinator Christopher Rutan. “And we’ll have a professional DJ. We’ll be rockin’ around the Christmas tree, have a lot of pictures taken. Santa Claus will greet the children and also be handing out candy canes, along with the neighborhood watch providing a hot cocoa bar and some snacks.”
The neighborhood watch members said the event would bring back the tradition of lighting the city hall Christmas tree.
City facilities director Mike Pope, who has been with the city for more than 30 years, said that they stopped holding the lighting ceremony because “fewer and fewer people” were showing up. He also stated that the city is not involved with this Friday’s event, which has been organized by the neighborhood watch.
Rutan said that the tree will actually be lit up on Friday prior to the start of the event. However, attendees will be the first ones on the city hall plaza to celebrate the sight, and the neighborhood watch hopes this brings back fond memories.
For more on this story, see Wednesday’s Republic.
