Gladbrook’s 18th annual Tree Lighting Festivities was held on Mon., Nov. 24th. It was a cold, windy and snowy day. Definitely Santa Claus weather!!!! Adults of all ages and excited kids enjoyed the activities. The upper level of the City Center was alive with the laughter of children as they visited with Santa Claus and received their ìSanta Sacksî. Gladbrookís annual “Festival of Trees” were illuminated that evening as well. The holiday music provided by Sue Koster added to everyone getting into the spirit of the season. The Festival of Trees will be on display in the upstairs of the City Center through December. The times are 1-5 & 6-9 daily except on Thurs., 1-4. The City Center will be closed on Dec. 24th & 25th. You will be very pleasantly surprised when you visit the “Festival of Trees”, so bring your family, friends and neighbors. We would like to thank all the businesses, organizations, and churches that participated besides individuals. In the theater lobby, the Brus set up a Farmers Market with a large variety of holiday goodies and crafts. Outside hot dogs and hot apple cider were served while Christmas music was played. Both the young and the old enjoyed riding on the beautifully lighted trolley pulled by a team of Belgiums belonging to Dennis Dostal. The trolley rides were sponsored by Great Western Bank and Goos Implement. For the program members of the Gladbrook-Reinbeck Middle School and High School chorus members sang several traditional Christmas carols after the lighting of the Christmas tree on Main Street. The Gladbrook Commercial Club would like to extend a big thank you to the students for sharing their beautiful music. Prizes, prizes and more prizes were given away. All the kids received a prize and 33 adult prizes were donated by Gladbrook merchants. The new activity this year was the Christmas Scavenger Hunt. Seven businesses participated and stayed open that evening: HF, NAPA, Serendipity by deb, Day in the Sun, Smith General Store, RJ’s Hideaway, and Anderson Funeral Home. Smith General Store and Day in the Sun celebrated their Grand Opening, while Anderson Funeral Home celebrated their grand opening of their remodeling project. All the stores had lots of goodies for the patrons to sample. The six winners of the $25 in trade dollars were Robin Leonard, Madisyn Eggers, Bonnie Franksain, Na’Jahy Teny, Miranda Cheville, and Emma McClintoch. We want to especially thank Gladbrook Covenant Clinic, Alliant Energy, MLS Transfer, Gladbrook Theater, Grundy Memorial Hospital, and Anderson Funeral Homes for their very generous donations and financial support besides all of our area businesses. A special thank you to the Gladbrook Young Women for decorating the Santa stage, doing the shopping for the kids prizes, the man-power during the activities and their financial support. It was greatly appreciated. The tree lighting activities are sponsored by the Gladbrook Commercial Club. We hope everyone has a happy holiday season.