The City of Knoxville will kick off the Christmas season today with the annual “Living Windows” celebration.
The Holiday of Hope window decorating contest begins today, and runs throughout the Christmas season. People can vote on their favorite display either on Facebook, or with a QR code on the window of each participating business. Candyland Live runs from 3:00 to 8:00 p.m., featuring discounts and door prizes at participating businesses.
A tree lighting ceremony will be held at 5:45 p.m. on Facebook Live. Knoxville music students will perform holiday songs at this event. Immediately following the tree lighting, Santa Claus will make a single “Santa Stop” drive-through style at the Knoxville High School parking lot with goodie bags for kids provided by the Knoxville Noon Kiwanis. This is a change from the previously announced Santa Stops at multiple locations. Santa will then appear again on Facebook Live for a sneak peek of the Merry-N-County Christmas light display in Marion County Park.
Organizer Cassi Pearson says that while things will look different at this year’s celebration, the THRIVE board wanted to make sure the community could still celebrate the beginning of the holiday season in a safe way.
“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.”