Fireworks illuminate Parliament Hill during the Christmas Lights Program kick-off last week.
When do you know Christmas is just around the corner?
For some, it is opening that first window of the Advent calendar, revealing the stocking-shaped chocolate inside. For others, the first faint notes of Jingle Bells heard over a department store stereo; Michael Bublé crooning a jazzy rendition of It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas. Or, it means watching those first few snowflakes make their way to earth, painting the city with a layer of glittery frost.
For those living in Ottawa, it is the annual Christmas Lights Across Canada festival – where the city scape comes alive with thousands of dazzling Christmas lights – that marks the beginning of the holiday season.
The lights are one of many local public art displays – including the Bank Street bike racks or the fire hydrant sculptures on Wellington– that bring art to the streets.
The Christmas Lights program was first introduced in 1985 by the National Capital Commission to “liven up the winter months,” says NCC spokesperson Charles Cardinal, adding a welcome pop of colour to Ottawa’s snowy Parliament Hill.
Today, both Ottawa and Gatineau sparkle with more than 300,000 Christmas lights, spanning 60 sites along Confederation Boulevard every season.
Preparation begins in early spring when the NCC does its annual inventory, taking note of how many lights are still available from the previous year and in what colours, says landscape architect and project manager Yoland Charette.
Charette has been involved in the program for the last three years, overseeing the design concept of the lights display.
In June and July, the design team conducts a site analysis for each location they plan to illuminate. They consider what objects onsite can be lit, what lighting will be most effective and how the display will be seen by the public – either by foot, bus or car.
“So when the tourists are in their shorts and flip-flops, we’re in the Christmas spirit here in the office,” he says.
Installation begins in October and continues until December but the team doesn’t stop there. Even after the city’s illumination, designers travel to each site and evaluate the final product, taking note of what works and what doesn’t. This is done to ensure a better program the following year.
“The process is really a year-long process,” says Charette.
Dec. 1 marks the beginning of the annual nationwide event that continues into the new year. Christmas Lights Across Canada sees all 13 provincial and territorial capitals participate, each with its own unique lighting ceremony.
In Nunavut, for example, an illumination ceremony of 3,000 lights takes place at the Legislative Assembly of Nunavut, complete with face-painting and music. In Halifax, Nova Scotia, an illumination of 10,000 lights at the City Hall Building in the Grand Parade, a military parade ground.
Those attending Ottawa’s ceremony last week – held on Parliament Hill – welcomed the holiday season with an impressive display of fireworks, followed by the illumination of the Centre Block and Peace Tower consisting of hundreds of large snowflakes against a light blue background.
Included in the night’s festivities were performances by Montreal-based jazz and soul singer Nadja and the Cross Town Youth Chorus. “It gets better every year,” says volunteer Melissa Dawe.
She returns every year because she loves the enthusiasm and “good energy” of attendees which, she suspects, has something to do with the amount of available treats – hot chocolate, BeaverTails and marshmallows – on the Hill.
“The free sugar doesn’t hurt!” she says with a laugh.
For Dana Taylor, braving the cold every year on Dec. 1 has become tradition and always puts her in the “Christmas spirit.”