Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Town of McCordsville has canceled its annual December tree-lighting ceremony.
“We made that decision because any event takes time to put together, it takes quite a bit of time to put together,” town manager Tonya Galbraith said. “Knowing the Christmas tree lighting invites hundreds of kids and parents and grandparents, we just didn’t think it made sense to wait and then have to cancel after we had done planning or try and plan to do the event with limited time.
“It just seemed like the prudent thing to do was to cancel it now.”
Galbraith said the event is typically crowded as bands and choirs from three area schools perform.
“When you get the bands or choirs of kids performing, you also get their parents and siblings and grandparents into both rooms at Town Hall,” she said. “Then they go out, and another group comes in the foyer lobby area of Town Hall, and there are tables set up to do crafts and make ornaments and face painting is in there, so that room gets very crowded.”
Pictures with Santa also draws a large crowd during the event.
“It is just a potential Petri dish of people, and we didn’t feel like it was a very good idea to potentially expose anyone,” Galbraith said.
Traditionally, the event is held the first Wednesday in December. Galbraith said a possible option conducting a virtual community competition of outdoor or indoor Christmas tree decorations, and whoever receives the most likes on social media would win a gift card to a restaurant.
“So, we are still promoting the season and promoting tree lightings, in a way, but we can do it in a virtual manner,” Galbraith said.
Galbraith said the town will still light its tree but won’t have the traditional event.
“I will still see if I can get a student from an elementary school to be the elf, because that’s what we’ve done every year. They flip the light to the tree,” she said.
For more, visit mccordsville.org.
