People enjoy the holiday lights in Victoria Park in London. Photo from www.londontourism.caPeople enjoy the holiday lights in Victoria Park in London. Photo from www.londontourism.ca
London

Lighting Of The Lights Set For Friday

Victoria Park will be aglow with thousands of Christmas lights as of Friday.

The annual Lighting of the Lights in the downtown park kicks off with caroling at 6:15pm. That will be followed by the countdown to the illumination of the park at 6:50pm.

Manager of Special Events for London, Krista Kearns anticipates thousands of people will attend the event.

"It's a tradition here in London. It kicks off the whole holiday season for Londoners," said Kearns

Roughly 75,000 lights are strung up in the park’s many trees for the winter wonderland display.

"We have our standard family favourites including Santa's mailbox, Santa and his reindeer, and the snow people," said Kearns. "Back again this year is the Santa House, where kids can come get their picture taken with Santa and the proceeds go to the Teresina Larizza Charity."

The park will be illuminated daily from 5:30pm to 11pm until December 30. On New Year's Eve the lights will stay on overnight. As always, the Promenade Deck above city hall will be open most nights from 7pm to 11pm, to allow Londoners a bird's eye view of the lights.

Keeping with tradition, the free outdoor skating rink will open for the season December 2, weather permitting. It will be open daily from 10am to 10pm.

Over the course of the holiday season, more than 50,000 people will visit the park to see the lights.

Read More Local Stories