Boston Holiday Tree Lighting Dec. 2

The City of Boston’s Official Tree Lighting will be held on Boston Common on Thursday, December 2, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. and will be broadcast live beginning at 7 p.m. on WCVB-TV Channel 5. Hosted by Mayor Thomas M. Menino, the Boston Parks and Recreation Department, title sponsor the Province of Nova Scotia, and media sponsors WCVB-TV Channel 5 and MAGIC 106.7 FM, this will be the 69th annual Tree Lighting on Boston Common.

The annual holiday display includes the official City of Boston Christmas tree and 40 trees throughout Boston Common with ten additional trees around the skating rink sponsored by The Skating Club of Boston.

The holiday decorations throughout Boston Common and the Public Garden, including the city’s official Christmas tree, 50-foot, 50-year-old white spruce, donated by Gary and Roseann Meisner of North Alton, Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia, and selected by Ross Pentz of the Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources, will light up in sequence when Mayor Menino throws the switch with Santa Claus. Joining Mayor Menino will be Deputy Premier of Nova Scotia the Honourable Frank Corbett and members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

The celebration will feature the Radio City Rockettes, 2006 American Idol runner-up Katharine McPhee, Grammy-winning R&B singer Patti Austin, the Boston Pops Gospel Choir with a cameo appearance by Pops conductor Keith Lockhart, a capella group Five O’Clock Shadow, the Boston Arts Academy, MAGIC 106.7’s Nancy Quill and Mike Addams, and Police Officer Stephen McNulty who will lead the end-of-show sing-along.

Immediately following the Boston Common tree lighting, Mayor Menino will join Back Bay residents at Arlington Street for the lighting of Commonwealth Avenue Mall.  Trees along the Mall will be illuminated through April 1 with elegant white lights sponsored for the seventh year through community support and private donations raised by the Committee to Light Commonwealth Avenue Mall.