Night includes plenty of song and dance, and a new-and-improved light show
Despite chilly evening temperatures on Dec. 6, Solvang Park was packed with people to witness the annual lighting of the park’s Christmas tree, which is considered the official kickoff to Solvang’s Julefest, the more-than-monthlong Christmas celebration in Solvang.
While the lighting of the tree would be the culminating event, the audience members were treating to some great entertainment up on the park gazebo and on the temporary ground-level stage set up nearby.
The Santa Ynez Valley Wind Ensemble began things by playing on the gazebo, performing a lot of Christmas favorites for the crowd as people continued to file in.
Then after they were done, emcees Dean Klitgaard and Susan Lee, stepped up to the gazebo to open the proceedings.
Klitgaard began by noting some Danish words and explaining what they meant, because they didn’t really have an English translation. After a few of those, Lee then told the crowd her and her father would give them a little pronunciation lesson for a word that would be used frequently throughout the month.
“We hear so many different pronunciations of the word, and that word is ‘Julefest,'” Lee said. “We’ll hear ‘yule-feast,’ once I think I heard someone call it ‘jewel-feast.’
‘But I think we’d like to all be able to say the word ‘yoola-fest,’ which does mean ‘for this party’ in Danish.”
With that, Lee and Klitgaard led the crowd in saying “yoola-fest” as the crowd eventually mastered the pronunciation.
After that, the crowd was treated to the evening’s entertainment, with Dr. Adam Haws, whom Klitgaard introduced as “The Singing Dentist,” singing a couple of numbers with the help of Kathryn Imani on keyboards. Mixed with that were performances by dancers for the Fossemalle Dance Company, who are regulars at the Solvang tree lighting events.
Eventually, the time came to light up the tree. For that, Solvang Mayor Mark Infanti came up to the gazebo.
“I hope this night has been great for you, and I hope that it’s the beginning of a really great holiday for you,” Infanti said before bringing up a special guest, 8-year-old Audrey Smith, who won a contest at Solvang School to by Mayor for the Day in Solvang.
“This young lady is going to get a tour of all the facilities in the city and understand how they work,” Infanti said. “So that she knows what it’s like to be a mayor; and then we’ll get in front of a council at one of these council meetings.”
Before the tree lighting, Infanti brought up Lee, Klitgaard, Haws, Dewey Roberts of Village Music Magic to join him and Audrey for a rendition of “Jingle Bells,” with the crowd joining to sing along.
Finally, it was time! Infanti gave Audrey the button for the tree light, and after a countdown to zero, Audrey hit the button and the tree lit up to great applause.
As an added bonus, the crowd later got to see the new light show that is put on nightly at the park. The light show was improved recently with the installation of a more-advanced system meant to improve the light show in the future.
The Solvang Julefest is ongoing, but some events won’t last much longer. For more information, visit solvangusa.com/things-to-do/solvang-julefest
Feature Image: A small group leads the crowd in a rendition of “Jingle Bells” during the Solvang Julefest Christmas tree lighting ceremony on Dec. 6 at Solvang Park. From left are Dewey Roberts, of Village Music Magic; Audrey Smith, 8, who turned on the tree lights; Dr. Adam Haws, the “Singing Dentist”; Solvang Mayor Mark Infanti; and Susan Lee and Dean Klitgaard of the Solvang Visitors Center. Photos by Mike Chaldu/SYVS
