Lights Under the Big Sky flip on the holiday fun
Trees decked out in different colored lights glitter along the path to the reindeer corral at Lights Under the Big Sky. (Courtesy photo)
RONAN — With the sun going down about 4:30 p.m. it’s a perfect time for Lights Under the Big Sky to usher in the holiday season with a fairground full of holiday lights. At 5 p.m. Dec. 10, 11, 17 and 18, the Lights Under the Big Sky crew will flip the switch, and the fairgrounds in Ronan will light up the night until 9 p.m.
Sjaan Vincent, who chairs Lights Under the Big Sky, started hanging lights and touching up the paint on angels and reindeer in October with much help from the Friends of the Lake County Fairgrounds elves.
Now the lighted vignettes are ready to enjoy. There will be activities for the kids in the Kids Zone; Christmas shopping and a forest of Christmas trees in the Lake County Community Center; Santa Claus in his bungalow; and food and drink available for purchase. Visitors can stroll the grounds while sipping a hot chocolate or hot cider and warming up at a fire pit.
And there will be entertainment, too, according to Jim Pettit, who’s coordinating the various acts.
“We’ll have music all four nights,” Pettit said, adding that there will be a wide variety of musicians, singers, dancers and choirs — everything from an a cappella choir to the songs of Merle Haggard.
New this year is A Holiday ReTREEt, a chance for nonprofit organizations “to help create a holiday forest scene in the Lake County Community Center … to showcase their involvement in our community,” according to Elf Patti Winter.
Nonprofits are encouraged to decorate a Christmas tree — no live trees or cut trees — and folks are encouraged to be creative with their trees. Not only will there be some friendly competition to win the $300, $150 and $50 prizes, but the trees will create a holiday forest in the Community Center. As people enter Lights Under the Big Sky, they will be given a ticket to place in the candy cane container by their favorite tree.
Santa Claus will be in residence every night at 5:30 p.m. except Dec. 18, when Santa will appear in the Ronan Parade of Lights and arrive to step out of his sleigh at 6:30 p.m. at the fairgrounds.
Toys for Tots boxes will be available on the fairgrounds if you’d like to make a child’s Christmas brighter. Just drop a new, unwrapped toy in the box and Toys for Tots personnel and the U.S. Marines will deliver them.
Tickets for all this holiday cheer are $4 per adult or $20 for a family of six. Children age 4 and younger get in free.