Friday was a gloves and hat kind of day in Princeton, cold enough to make people drink hot beverages to stay warm as they waited in Princeton’s Palmer Square for the moment to arrive.
By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
Friday was a gloves and hat kind of day in Princeton, cold enough to make people drink hot beverages to stay warm as they waited in Princeton’s Palmer Square for the moment to arrive.
That moment, of course, was when more than 30,000 lights on a 65-foot Norwegian Spruce would be turned on — the way the town ushers in the Christmas season year after year.
The singular event draws thousands of people to the center of town, from the ones who ringed the green on Palmer Square and beyond, like Joan Howe of Princeton Junction, who was standing nearly on Nassau Street to get a look.
”It’s a wonderful little town,” said Ms. Howe in witnessing her first Palmer Square tree lighting.
Police did not have a crowd estimate, although one officer used the word “big” to describe how many people showed up.
A section of Palmer Square was closed to traffic. Crowds were arriving, as if magnetically drawn to witness the tree lighting ceremony scheduled to start at 4:45 p.m.
As the sunlight faded, the darkening late afternoon sky provided the backdrop. First, though, Princeton High School students and a band called the Alice Project entertained the crowd.
This was a snapshot of the holidays. A day after eating turkey, little children ran around on the grass in front of the Post Office.
”I love it. It’s wonderful,” said Lynn Irving of Princeton, who attended with her family.
Anita Fresolone, the marketing director of Palmer Square Management and one of the emcees of the ceremony, said Palmer Square has had a tree lighting since the early 1980s. The spruce, located in front of the Nassau Inn, contains 32,000 lights, she said. The tree will stay lit from now until the end of the first week of January, she said.
After the singing, the big event finally arrived. At 5:29 p.m. exactly, the 32,000 lights went on — that type of ball dropping in Times Square moment that happens only once a year.
Afterward, a guest visitor dropped by to get in on the fun.
”Let me hear you,” Santa Claus exhorted the crowd.