Looking a lot more like Christmas
City spends about $42,000 to deck the halls of Charlottetown in 2017
The City of Charlottetown has spent about $42,000 and spread a little more Christmas cheer this year.
It has done away with many of its old decorations, some of them dating back some 20 years, and purchased a whole series of new lights, Santas, reindeer and just about anything it can hang on a light pole or stick in the ground.
“We’ve made some pretty significant changes,’’ said Coun. Terry Bernard, chairman of the city’s urban beautification committee.
“Looking at some of the decorations last year, especially during the day time, I kind of felt that they were deteriorating and starting to look old.’’
Last year, in an effort to spruce things up, the city and Downtown Charlottetown Inc. (DCI) added lights to City Hall that could be changed depending on the circumstance, such as multi colours for Christmas or green for St. Patrick’s Day.
“We got budget approval this year, and now we’re replacing a lot of our Christmas decorations.’’
Giant blue snowflakes or snowmen now hang off light standards throughout the downtown core.
“On Queen Street across from Confederation Centre you’ll see the aluminum poles are decked out now with snowmen and the old-fashioned lanterns will have a snowflake or another light pole decoration.’’
Changes were still ongoing on Friday and include something new just outside St. Paul’s Anglican Church at the corner of Prince and Grafton streets.
“Down by St. Paul’s church you’re going to see a very large display with a Joy to the World nativity scene and large, 16-foot angels on both sides so we see a lot of new stuff that’s going up around the city that’s making the city look quite festive and quite attractive looking.’’
The public will also notice Christmas lights going up around many of the older trees in downtown Charlottetown.
“We’ve made some pretty significant changes. Looking at some of the decorations last year, especially during the day time, I kind of felt that they were deteriorating and starting to look old.’’
Coun. Terry Bernard