By LISA HOOVER

CANTON -- This year marks the 30th annual Holiday of Lights celebration in Canton, with highlights to include Santa and friends, the tree lighting, and caroling.

Pulled by Bill and Curt, Tim Hatch's Percheron horses, Santa Claus will arrive at the Canton village green to light the Robin Crowell Memorial Tree and veterans’ “thank you” tree Friday, Nov. 29 at 6 p.m. Mayor-elect Mary Ann Ashley will assist Santa with his tree lighting duties.

The event is scheduled for the day after Thanksgiving, “when family are home,” said Marilyn Mintener, one of the event organizers. “I see lots of grandparents” and families, she said.

Canton's new Police Chief Lori A. McDougal and volunteer firefighters will lead Santa’s “sleigh” with flashing lights and flaming torches. “When the police car’s lights start flashing, Santa will be coming into town,” said Sandy Hill, executive director of the Canton Chamber of Commerce. “You see him come up the street with those beautiful horses,” Mintener said.

Following the tree lighting, Santa will talk to each child in attendance and give out books and candy canes donated by local businesses.

Soloist Diane Foote will lead caroling, joined by Christmas favorites Frosty The Snowman, Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer, Mr. and Mrs. Gingerbread, Micky and Minnie Mouse, and Spotty the Dalmatian Dog. The beloved characters will dance with the kids and pose for family photos.

“Santa is so wonderful – he is so good at posing with the kids for photos,” Mintener said. “I think four out of five people who come get their kid’s photos taken.”

The Presbyterian Church, Park Place, will serve donated hot chocolate and cookies as kids wait for a lighted sleigh ride around the village.

The celebration is put together each year by “a group of volunteers at the busiest time of the year, setting aside the very night after Thanksgiving to put this on in our village,” said Mintener. “That’s really the story here.”

Mintener reminisced about the event’s early years, saying “we went to the village and got all the financing.”

“The first year, the phone was ringing, and we got calls from other mayors” about nearby town residents asking “why Canton can do it and we can’t,” she said. Canton was the first to do a Christmas lighting event, “but we don’t mind being copied.”

“We hope it will continue for many, many years,” she said.

After two years of construction and a host of new trees and lights, village crews have returned to the traditional stringing of white lights and wreaths on Main Street trees.

Red-ribboned white memory tags honoring loved ones will hang from the Crowell Tree, and thirteen downtown businesses will have Christmas trees in their windows or lobbies decorated by local youth groups.

“We draw from so many locations, it’s not just Canton,” she said.

“Our committee is pretty small,” Mintener explained. “We all have our jobs to do” and “get a good deal of help from the banks.”

It’s really “the whole community pulling together to make this event,” she said.

Attendees are encouraged to dress warmly and bring flashlights.

Donations of canned goods can be left in the church lobby.

Donations for the event may be mailed to Karen Thatcher, 400 Cousintown Road, Dekalb Junction, 13630.