Santa Claus was greeted by a crowd of approximately 500 people Friday at Esther Short Park, where he had the honor of lighting the community Christmas tree.
Santa, who arrived on a Vancouver Fire Department truck, probably had to forgo his sleigh due to a low cloud cover, speculated Elson Strahan, president and CEO of the Fort Vancouver National Trust, who emceed the event.
Strahan and Scott Campbell, governmental and community affairs manager for Waste Connections, which co-sponsored the event with the city of Vancouver and the Vancouver Rotary Foundation, led the crowd in chanting “We want Santa.”
Yellow caution tape across Propstra Square created a path for Santa, which narrowed as children pressed forward to catch a glimpse.
Santa was accompanied by Mrs. Claus — who bore a striking resemblance to Vancouver City Councilor Anne McEnerny-Ogle — and elves.
Santa wished the crowd “a big Merry Christmas!” and thanked people for coming out in the rain to greet him and Mrs. Claus before lighting the tree.
Unlike last year, all of the strands came on.
Squirrels were blamed for a section of the tree that stayed dark last year. This year, the city waited until Tuesday to have the tree decorated to give squirrels less time to nibble the strands.
After the colorful lights blinked on, a choir of middle and high school students from Vancouver Public Schools, which had been entertaining the crowd prior to Santa’s arrival, sang “O Christmas Tree.”
Abby Palandrani, an eighth-grader at Alki Middle School, and her sister, Ella, a seventh-grader at Alki, said they’d been practicing carols since October. Prior to singing at the park, they rehearsed at the Hilton Vancouver Washington with singers from other schools, including Thomas Jefferson, Discovery, Gaiser, Jason Lee and McLoughlin middle schools and Skyview and Columbia River high schools.
The set list included all the standards, such as “A Holly Jolly Christmas,” “Let it Snow,” “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” and, of course, “Santa Claus is Coming to Town.”
It was cold while they were performing for the crowd, the sisters said, but fun.
After the tree was lit, the crowd dispersed about as fast as Santa has to work on Christmas Eve. People were encouraged to go across Sixth Street to the Hilton for the Rotary Foundation’s Festival of Trees.
Admission to the Festival of Trees is free, with a suggested $5 donation. The festival will be open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. today and from noon to 4 p.m. Sunday.
