Christmas Lighting in Leavenworth

This weekend Leavenworth kicked off the Christmas season with their Christmas Lighting Festival.  Everything and I mean everything is covered in lights downtown.  To make a dramatic affect, the lights are kept off until dusk when they are magically turned on.  People from all over come to see this event.  But the lights are just the climax of the night.  Leavenworth wants everyone to have a memorable experience here so they do a whole lot more than just turn on the lights.  It starts around noon when the band and carolers fill the gazebo to play Christmas tunes from both here and Europe.  The town also has people dressed up as Christmas characters walking around town to greet people. 

We were asked last week if we would like to participate in this event by dressing up as some of the characters.

I got to be Mrs. Clause ( My hat is way too big.  If only I could have had a wig, it would have been ok, but, oh well.)

Bonnie ended up dressing up as Frosty.

Bryce was an Elf.

And Brian....well....he was supposed to be an another elf, but they didn't have another elf costume so he opted to go home and stay warm.

 (btw...that is Rudolf in the background.)

 For two hours, we walked around town mingling with the tourist.  Bonnie was very popular.  She was not allowed to talk but had a lot fun with the crowd.  People were constantly stopping her to take their picture with her.  Bryce and I had several photo ops as well. 

My favorite moment of the night was when a mother pulled me aside and thanked me for my mashed potato recipe (wink, wink).  It was the only potatoes that her three year old would eat.  The three year old stood there wide eyed at me, and I told him how glad I was that he liked my mashed potatoes and that he needed to eat them so that he could get big and strong. He agreed and his mom said that Mrs. Claus's potatoes were his favorite. lol 

By 4:30, the cannons started going off marking the start of the lighting, the star carriers and bell ringers then started to walk down the street and as they passed each building the lights came on.  All the while, carolers are leading the crowd into singing Christmas carolers. 

I loved standing there in costume and singing Christmas carols, while snow fell and the lights came on.