“Living Windows,” Knoxville’s annual kickoff of the Christmas season, is one week away. It won’t be the large gathering of people downtown that has become the standard, but will still provide holiday spirit in different ways. Knoxville Schools Superintendent Cassi Pearson says that they wanted to find a way to still celebrate Christmas while limiting crowds.

“We are so tuned into making sure that our community continues to focus on healthy behaviors. We know that congregating in large groups of people that aren’t normally together is not a good idea. But we do want to make sure that people feel like we’re kicking off a holiday season. We want them to appreciate and know what our local businesses are. We want to encourage local shopping.”

The tree-lighting ceremony will be broadcast on Facebook live. Santa Claus will then lead Facebook viewers out to Marion County Park to view a sneak peak of the lighted display “Merry-N-County Christmas.”