San Rafael kicks off holiday season with annual Christmas tree lighting
Kids danced in the streets and their parents snacked on holiday treats Saturday night as San Rafael residents gathered to watch the city light its holiday tree.
The annual Holiday of Lights & Winter Wonderland event drew crowds to a shut-down section of Fourth Street, where residents browsed through local businesses and vendors lining the street in white tents. At the intersection of Fourth and Court Street, a tall tree towered over the crowd, waiting to be lit.
Christopher Mychajluk has been coming to the event for around a decade with his family-run business, Lucky Pop Kettle Corn. He noted this year’s clear skies and mid-50s temperatures made it a particularly enjoyable day to be roaming around outside eating snacks or taking family photos.
Mychajluk estimated around 300 people stopped by to grab a bag of Lucky Pop’s sweet or savory popcorn.
Around the corner from Lucky Pop’s tent, children flocked to a machine spraying floating bits of fake snow — the closest thing to a white Christmas in San Rafael city limits.
From a few feet away, local resident Tracy Holcomb watched as her children frolicked in the fake snow.
Holcomb came out Saturday night with another family to “kick off the holiday season” by snacking on some holiday kettle corn and watching the tree lighting, she said. Elsewhere, families watched as their children climbed through an inflatable obstacle course or took a turn inside a plastic snow globe filled with fluffy white fake snow.
When 5:30 p.m. came, the crowd cheered as white lights flickered alive on the tall tree, topped with a shining star on top. Though most of the festivities had wrapped up, families lingered in the plaza, dancing to “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” under the glow of the lights.
“San Rafael is a big city, but this kind of stuff feels like a small town, which is nice,” Holcomb said.