Category Archives: Holiday

The tree’s almost ready in Linn Park

2011 Holiday tree gets trimmed in BirminghamThose venturing through Birmingham’s city center saw a couple of city crews on the southern edge of Linn Park working hard to get the 2011 Christmas tree decorated in time for its official lighting on Tuesday, December 6 (pdf).

The 40-foot Norway spruce arrived from Newland, NC on November 28. It’ll be strung with more than 5,000 lights in time for next week’s activities – these include the 4th Avenue Christmas Parade and an appearance by Santa & Mrs. Claus. It’s scheduled to take place between 5-7 p.m.

The city (and the region) is beginning to look a lot like Christmas (if it wasn’t already doing so back in late October). For example, if you were surfing through terrestrial radio stations in the car and you’re wondering if that was actually hearing Christmas music on Halloween, you weren’t imagining things.

Magic 96.5 decided it’s never too early to get into the spirit of the holiday season. They’ve been playing Christmas music since 7:15 Halloween morning – and they’re not stopping until Christmas Day. The ClearChannel-owned station’s press release stated that listeners had been requesting the annual format change for weeks via Facebook.

Holiday wishes from the stationmaster

With many people suggesting that they’re beginning their holiday weekend early, I just wanted to take a moment and say a few words.

Of course, You’d think I’d be remiss to not also take a moment and publicly thank all of you who’ve made it possible to be a finalist in The Birmingham News‘ Birmingham’s Best Readers Poll best website category for the third year in a row. But I didn’t.

I could also mention that we’ll post specific times and locations for the contributors interest meetings that I’m hoping to hold beginning January 5. Nope, didn’t do that either.

Perhaps I could’ve even mentioned the beginning of minor changes made to the front page of the site and (hopefully by this evening) the archives. Well, I do kind of tease about those…

In the end, all I wanted to do was deliver a simple message before everyone got on the road or busy with whatever it is that we do.

Children, puppies or hipsters? You decide.

Luckie Choose Your Charity screenshotThe folks over at Birmingham, AL-based Luckie and Co. have $6,000 to give away to charity this holiday season – and they want your help to figure out how to divvy it up.

If you visit a special section of their website (click here to get there) before December 31, you can decide how the money is split up.

Your choices are puppies, children and creatives.

No, they’re not going to tell you exactly who’s getting the money until you place your vote (and we don’t know what they are either) but it’s definitely an interesting way to engage the community for the holidays.

Image: Screenshot from holiday.luckie.com

Birmingham prepares to light new tree

The new tree arrives. acnatta/FlickrThe City of Birmingham will light this replacement Christmas tree tomorrow morning in Linn Park at 9:30 a.m. It arrived shortly after 3 p.m. this afternoon.

A crane and city crews were waiting to put the 30’+ tree into position so that those interested in helping decorate it may – beginning at 9 a.m. tomorrow.

The new tree was retrieved from nearby Tarrant and donated by 98.7 Kiss FM and Cox Radio as a replacement for the one that was burned down Wednesday morning as vandals attempted to steal its lights for copper.

Photo: The new tree arrives. acnatta/Flickr

Jingle, Jangle, Jingle…

Photo: Mr. Bingle – gairid1791/Flickr

We seemed to make a big splash last year for the holidays with our digital message to readers. I thought it might be a good idea to revisit the main reason for the enjoyment – an appearance by Mr. Bingle.

It’s OK if you don’t know who he is; here’s a little background on him as well as his story. He recently made his annual appearance in New Orleans’ Christmas parade and is still owned by Dillards. Considering the cold weather, it may just be the type of thing to finish putting you in the right mindset for the season. Maybe you”l want to  join his fan site as well.

Christmas comes to Birmingham tonight

Photo: acnatta/Flickr

The joy of the holiday season will fill Linn Park in downtown Birmingham as the annual Christmas tree lighting ceremony takes place. The annual parade will begin at 5 p.m, moving north along 20th Street North and ending at Linn Park where the ceremony is scheduled to start at 6 p.m. It should be warm enough to enjoy the excitement.

Christmas by Candlelight, American Village

The American Village History and Civic Education Center in Montevallo is busy getting ready for its second annual Christmas By Candlelight celebration. Here are the highlights:

The evening kicks off with a Grand Lighting of the Village ceremony at 5 p.m. each day. Afterwards, Father Christmas will lead a family parade across the Village Green to the Courthouse where he will receive the young and young at heart all evening.

Hundreds of luminaries will be placed along Village streets and lanes, inviting all to savor the experience of a tradition-laden early American Christmas. Visitors will hear carolers, open the doors to historical settings, all decked out with old-fashioned Yuletide greenery.

The Colonial Chapel will feature Christmas music at 6 and 7:30 p.m. each night. On Friday night, the Handbell Choir of Pelham’s First Baptist Church will perform, and on Saturday night, the Dawson Singers from Dawson Memorial Baptist Church will perform.

Cost: $10 adults / $5 youth (ages 5-17) / free, children 4 and under.

A special treat this year: A lavish Christmas Groaning Board Buffet and Feast, prepared by the Wynfrey! Offered at two seatings: 5:30 and 7:30 p.m. each night. Reservations strongly encouraged.

Additional admission cost: $35 for adult buffet ages 13 and up / $12.95 for children 12 and under.

Call: 1-877-811-1776 (select
Option 2 – Special Events) for reservations. Or email: lhopson@americanvillage.org.

Location:
American Village
website | directions