A few weeks before nine-month-old Evelyn’s first Christmas, she and her family attended their first treelighting as Aldergrove residents.
Dad, Richard Farrance, Mom, Marielle, and big sister, Clara, arrived at the plaza at 272nd Street and Fraser Highway on Sunday, Nov. 26 a few minutes before the countdown began.
“We moved here from Surrey about a year ago,” Richard explained. “We love it here.”
They were among hundreds of children and adults who filled the plaza, sampling complimentary hot chocolate provided by Alliance Concrete Pumps, and cookies and candy canes courtesy of FreshCo Aldergrove.
Without fences or gates, an exact tally wasn’t possible, but the turnout appeared to be up from the previous year, when it snowed, with about 200 people attended.
This year, Cashmere Roder, president of the Aldergrove Community Association said Alliance served 400 hot chocolates and about 300 FreshCo cookies were distributed.
However, Roder cautioned that might be misleading because people were going back for extra helpings.
“I know some people told me they went back for like, five hot chocolates,” Roder laughed.
There were also Santa letters for children to write and a special mailbox to ensure their delivery, and the food bank was accepting donations.
Roder described the sunny, dry weather as “gorgeous” compared to last year.
“We are super lucky,” Roder enthused.
Mrs. Santa arrived to sing and tell a Christmas story before the countdown to lighting up the tree.
“One of the highlights for me, that we didn’t do last year, is Mrs. Claus actually brought ornaments and had the Adergrove Soccer girls hand them out to all the children so they got to go and hang them all along the fence [around the tree],” Roder said.
Like last year, it was a high-tech display, with strings of lights in the shape of a tree set up by a volunteer crew from Aldergrove’s “Buy The Right Light Co.” using lights purchased by the Township and stored by the company.
“I know a lot of people really want to see a real tree, but there’s costs associated with that. And then, of course, cutting down a live huge tree, there’s issues with that as well,” Roder explained.
Buy The Right Light crew members spend close to 10 hours stringing the tree lights, she said.
“They were there all day long, until almost midnight, putting up the tree and this year, we got some extra lights so they were able to make it a little bit more sparkly and spectacular,” Roder enthused.
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Roder thanked the community, the Township, and the sponsors for their support.
Next, on Saturday, Dec. 16, starting at 4:30 p.m. there will be a community Christmas party followed by the Aldergrove Light Up Christmas Parade, which has been taking place downtown for approximately 30 years.
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