The Magic Is Set To Begin In Cedar City On November 25th

The magic is set to begin on Saturday, November 25^th in Cedar City. That will be the day the city will have a day long celebration culminating with the annual Christmas Lighting Ceremony downtown. There will be new events included in this years festivities along with traditions from years past.

Brandon Burk, recently named Events Director for Cedar City joined us on the radio show to let our audience in on some of the things we can look forward to at this years celebration. “This year it's even bigger and better than it's been in the past,” Burk told us.

Officially called the Historic Downtown Cedar City Holiday Lighting Ceremony, events will get started much earlier than in the past. This year there will be events from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. To facilitate that, Main Street between Center and 200 North will be closed starting at 10AM. The nest event to the ceremony is the reason for the earlier closure.

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“The Christmas Market will be new this year. Some members of the community have gotten together, created a committee along with the Chamber of Commerce,” Burk told us. “What we want to do is create a downtown Christmas Market with some really unique local artisans...to have some unique crafts, some unique goods,” Brandon continued. This year, the market will be in the area between Coldwell Banker and City Hall. The goal, however is to have 100 vendors participating in the Christmas Market by 2025.

As was the case in Railroad Centennial Celebration held this last summer, there will e a train running through the downtown area offering rides around town. The train rides are sponsored by the ERA Realty Center.

Pre-show activities will begin at 4 p.m. During that time there will be the Ugly Sweater Contest, kids crafts provided by the Cedar City Rotary Club along with giveaways. Community members are being asked to bring a non-perishable food item when they come. Those items will be donated to the Iron County Care and Share.

The official program begins at 5 p.m. and will feature a what Burk calls, “a big show! Directed by Scott Phillips. We've got dancers, musicians, it's just going to be a really great time...kids performing, it's going to be awesome!” World renowned choreographer Mic Thompson will be leading the dance performances.

Activities continuing in the 5 O'clock hour will be the illumination of the downtown holiday lights, Santa's arrival by helicopter from SUU aviation, and a fireworks show sponsored by Visit Cedar City – Brian Head.

One lucky child along with a guardian will be able to join with Santa in the helicopter to make the trip to downtown. You can find out more about that and enter by clicking this link (you'll need a Facebook login).

Once the holiday lights are on, you can follow Santa over to Festival Hall, where the Holiday Tree Jubilee will be underway. There you can grab some hot chocolate, and area for the children to enjoy, and you can get photos with Santa while you are there. The jubilee will have dozens of Christmas trees, prize drawings and more.

The jubilee last for several days, and contributes thousands of dollars to local charities like the Iron County Care and Share and the Cedar City Police Department's Shop With A Cop program.

Laura Albrecht, Executive Director and Founder of the Holiday Tree Jubilee said, “the jubilee continues to grow year after year, thanks to our community's generosity. In 2022, we were able to raise close to $45,000 and it all goes back into the community for those who need it most.”

Also new this year will be a Live Nativity performance presented by the Cedar Area Interfaith Alliance. Those performances will be in front of the Old Rock Church, and will go from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.

More details on the activities of the day are available here.

“(We) have thousands of people downtown for this event,” Brandon told us, enough to keep warm it what could be cooler temperatures by then. “It just keeps growing. People come from out of town. It's amazing!,” he concluded.

One could even call it magical.

You can listen to our entire visit with Brandon Burk below.