As the winter holidays sneak up on us, several in our community have been thinking about the season for quite some time. Every year since 1978, the City of Knoxville, along with various community organizations, artistic groups, businesses and churches, have come together to sponsor the many events that make up Christmas in the City. This year's "Christmas in the City celebration will be bigger, brighter and better than ever... including roughly 100 different events and attractions on a calendar stretching from November to New Year's Eve."
Christmas at Knoxville's Market Square. Photo by ViNull.
These events begin in early November with craft fairs, Buddy's Race Against Cancer, and a variety of performances at the Knoxville Museum of Art and other venues. Then the season kicks into high gear on November 28th with the Regal Celebration of lights, featuring "the lighting of the (38-foot) First Tennessee Foundation Christmas Tree accompanied by thousands of lights decorating Krutch Park, the extension and Market Square." With the downtown sparkling Christmas cheer, many stroll about, enjoying the old fashioned "caroling, hot chocolate, marshmallow roasting, horse drawn carriage rides, free pictures with Santa, cookie decorating with Mrs. Claus & more."
It is also on November 28 that Knoxville's downtown rooftops come alive with hundreds of Christmas trees, and the ice skating rink at Market Square, Holidays on Ice, opens. The Knoxville Christmas tree extravaganza, East Tennessee Children's Hospital's Fantasy of Trees, is held from November 26-30 and the Moscow Ballet preforms the Great Russian Nutcracker at the historic Tennessee Theater on November 29. What's new this season? "New Christmas lights and decorations in the Old City; the Fowler's Christmas Parade (December 5) has been extended into the Old City; and following the Fowler's Christmas Parade is a block party on Gay Street! "The 2008 edition of Christmas in the City will conclude with First Night Knoxville 2009, a family-friendly New Year's Eve celebration on Market Square featuring music, dancing, storytelling, artists, children's activities, food and much more." For more information about enjoying the holidays in Knoxville, contact us.
