A Holiday Celebration in Scarsdale Village

You couldn’t help but smile at the Light the ‘Dale tree lighting in Scarsdale Village on Friday night December 6, 2024. Young, old and everyone in between bundled up for the brisk 30 degrees weather but many felt it was preferable to last year’s rain. With hats, mittens, hot cocoa and warm pretzels, the chilly air was embraced.

The celebration ceremony kicked off with Scarsdale High School’s A capella group For Good Measure singing a variety of holiday carols including Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer. In their finale, they harmonized “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” as the original Santa rolled in on a big red firetruck. He greeted the crowd and went straight to the lottery hopper to pick a winner who would flip the switch on the holiday lights and tree. Sue Oricchio, from Scarsdale’s Recreation Department, commented that 110 children pre-registered to have their name on a ticket that was placed in the lottery hopper. Santa drew out the winning ticket and William Zhu, a 7 year-old Quaker Ridge resident who just turned 8 on December 8th, was selected for this honor. He was extremely excited and bounced to his spot up front by the switch waiting patiently for his cue.Christmas Carols from the SHS A Capella Group "For Good Measure:

Brian Gray, Superintendent of the Recreational Department welcomed everyone to the evening's event and introduced Rabbi Blake of Westchester Reform Temple to give the holiday prayer. Mayor Justin Arest then thanked everyone for coming and for the Rec Department for organizing this wonderful event. He invited Scarsdale Police Department Chief Andrew Matturro to the podium to light the Menorah. Chief Matturro was recognized for this honor for his 36 year service on the force as he will retire next month. Still waiting patiently, it was finally William’s turn to switch on the lights. Ahhhhhh, went the crowd.

But that was only the beginning of the evening events. Adjacent to the now brightly lit tree, Santa stationed himself in a tent, in a big red chair next to a red sleigh while children and adults waited to tell him what they wanted for Christmas and take a photo too.

Tents lined Boniface Circle with holiday goodies like hot cocoa, hot pretzels, popcorn, food trucks, holiday stickers, face painting with artists from Team Fun Circus and an amazing horticultural activity sponsored by the Weinberg Nature William Zhu lit the tree.Center. At this tent, children and adults could plant seeds and choose from native ferns, red clover and wildflowers, all non toxic and pet friendly. The wildflower option was by far the most popular.

There was a Toys for Tots truck and further up Spencer Place was the Scarsdale Rec Department’s Polar Express Depot. Here children and parents waited for a ride that went down scenic Harwood Court with lighted blow ups lining both sides of the street. Right before the Polar Express circled back to the depot the riders would be hit with snow flurries making the trip magically festive.

The 2-hour event went very fast and was jam packed and full of excitement for the holiday season.

The only Grinch moment was the parking that was hard to come by.

01/12 

   

The Polar Express

Greenacres Third Grader Gigi Palese and her mom.