Gladbrook’s 20th annual tree lighting festivities was held on Wed., Nov. 30th. It was a cold wet night with light snow flurries coming down, but that didnít stop the crowd from enjoying “Gladbrook’s Whooville”. 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”. The holiday music provided by Sue Koster added to everyone getting into the spirit of the season. The theme of Gladbrook’s annual “Festival of Trees” was “Welcome to Whooville”. Stores in the village included a Whooville Hair, where kids got their hair styled in the whimsical “Whooville” fashion, stories were read in the Whooville Library, pictures were taken in the Whooville photo display, and people brought food items for the Whooville Food Pantry, under the watchful eye of a Whooville homeless lady!!! The Grinch was found in his colorful lair by Great Western Bank. Some were even brave enough to get their picture taken!! Outside hot dogs and hot apple cider were served. 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 many adults won prizes as well all donated by Gladbrook merchants. The lucky winners of the $25 trade dollars were Jeff Halverson, Leslie McClintoch, Kathy Vavroch, and one who did stay for the picture. This was the 2nd year for the Christmas Ornament Scavenger Hunt. Six businesses participated and stayed open that evening: HF, NAPA, Serendipity by deb, Spanky’s, Smith’s General Store, & the Gladbrook Theater. Each business had a piece of the Grinch to make up the 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 drawing for two baskets of prizes. The winners were Jacob Collins and Brian Lage. 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, HF, 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 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. The tree lighting activities are sponsored by the Gladbrook Commercial Club. We hope everyone has a happy holiday season.