Photo by Drake Terven Gladbrook Mayor Keith Sash got in on the festivities sitting on Santa’s lap at the 19th Annual Gladbrook Tree Lighting Festivities held on Monday, November 23. Pictured with Mayor Sash and Santa are the mayor’s grandchildren, Dayton on grandpa’s lap and Casein taking it all in.

Gladbrook’s 19th annual Tree Lighting Festivities was held on Mon., Nov. 23rd. It was a beautiful winter night with snow on the ground, no wind, and a full moon.

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 “Santa Sacks”. Gladbrook’s 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, several participated in the Farmers Market with a large variety of holiday goodies and crafts.

Ari Pierce and her mom Heather enjoy some hot dogs and hot cider at the Gladbrook Tree Lighting Festivities.

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 Rev. Robert Doner led the count down to the lighting of the beautiful evergreen tree donated by Keith & Shelly Smith. Followed by members of the Gladbrook-Reinbeck High School chorus singing several traditional Christmas carols. 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 25 adult prizes were donated by Gladbrook merchants. The lucky winners of the $25 trade dollars were Courtney Millard, Angela Peters, Beth Koester, and Kathy Vavroch, who was celebrating her birthday that evening.

The new activity this year was the Christmas Ornament Scavenger Hunt.

Dennis Dostal’s horse drawn trolley is always a favorite at the tree lighting.

Six businesses participated and stayed open that evening: HF, NAPA, Serendipity by deb, Day in the Sun, Smith General Store, & the Gladbrook Theater. Each business had a piece of the snowman ornament. When it was completed the ornament was placed on a tree in the Festival of Trees and the kids and adults signed up for a drawning for two baskets of prizes.

The winners were Dan Geels and Hunter Roberts. All the stores had lots of goodies for the patrons to sample.

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.

Some of the beautiful trees exhibited at the Gladbrook Festival of Trees located on the second floor of the Gladbrook City Centre.

Sue Koster filled the room with Christmas carols.