Carlos Ayala, a worker with Outdoor Reflections, places strands of lights on the Christmas Tree in front of Dallas Hall in preperation for Sunday night’s Celebration of Lights.
SMU will be kicking off the holiday season with the annual Celebration of Lights on Dec. 3 at 6:30 p.m.
The hour-long event will bring together students, faculty, staff and community members with the lighting of the Christmas tree on the Main Quad.
The event is expecting to attract 2,000 to 2500 people.
“I love the Celebration of Lights. I look forward to it every year. After they turn on all the lights, it makes me so excited for Christmas. It’s my one time to take a break from all the studying and I love it,” said Corey Christine, an SMU senior.
It will begin with group singing, along with the audience’s participation. There will be an invocation by Chaplain William Finnin followed by President R. Gerald Turner’s reading of “A Christmas Carol.” The celebration will conclude with a singing of “Silent Night” as the Christmas lights are turned on.
The stringing of the lights began Nov. 4. According to the event’s chairman, Greg Ryan of Student Foundation, the Christmas tree is done along with a majority of the other lights. There will be a total of 138,500 lights at the celebration.
The Student Foundation Events Committee began planning this event in September. The eight people in the committee are not the only ones working hard.
Ryan expressed his appreciation for all 110 Student Foundation members.
“They help with all the decorations and they work the different shifts on the night of the event. They do so much,” said Ryan.
Members of the SMU community will not be the only people enjoying this celebration. Sixty seven Caesar Chavez Elementary School children will be at the event.
Each child has been sponsored by a group or individual. The child will go to the celebration with their sponsor and will then receive a Christmas present from them.
After the event, there will be a reception with the children in the Hughes-Trigg ballroom.
