‘Tis once again the season to celebrate at the annual Kearny Tree Lighting Festival Thursday, Dec. 5, from 5:15 to 8:30 p.m. at Kearny Town Hall.
Hometown concert
The evening begins on the steps of Town Hall with a concert featuring local performers of all ages, including the Kearny High School Ensemble, Kearny High School K-Birds, Kearny 6th Grade Chorus, West Hudson Arts & Theater Company Carolers, the Next Step School of Dance, Hudson Arts & Sciences Choral Group, Visions Dance Studio, the Great Learning Center, Ritmo Latino Dance Studio and KAM Dance Academy among others.
At 6:30 p.m., Santa arrives to help Mayor Carol Jean Doyle the council light the tree.
Festival in the Park
Festivities then move to the American Revolution Bicentennial Park (Town Hall Park) where Santa, joined by Mrs. Claus, will be on hand for photo ops with children (12 and younger) until 8:30 p.m. Santa will be handing out holiday gifts and goodies (while supplies last.) The merry making continues with free events and activities. Families may enjoy performances on the Jingle Bell Stage, where special guests “Moana” will perform and then be on hand for a meet and greet. Other activities hosted by various businesses and community groups include face painting, balloon making, a life-sized snow globe, magic reindeer food making and a special holiday surprise.
The KUEZ will also be on hand with its annual giant free toy raffle.
While all this happens, Kearny Avenue will be closed between Liberty Street and Quincy Avenue.
The event is sponsored by the Kearny Urban Enterprise Zone (KUEZ), Doyle and Town Council along with several local organizations and businesses.
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Kevin A. Canessa Jr. is the editor of and broadcaster at The Observer, an organization he has served since 2006. He is responsible for the editorial content of the newspaper and website, the production of the e-Newspaper, writing several stories per week (including the weekly editorial), conducting live broadcasts on social media channels such as YouTube, Facebook, and X, including a weekly recap of the news — and much more behind the scenes. Between 2006 and 2008, he introduced the newspaper to its first-ever blog — which included podcasts, audio and video. Originally from Jersey City, Kevin lived in Kearny until 2004, lived in Port St. Lucie. Florida, for four years until February 2016 and in March of that year, he moved back to Kearny to return to The Observer full time. Click Here to send Kevin an email.