Mayor Purcell Lights Nashville's Holiday Tree
Mayor Purcell's Remarks
Thank
you for joining us here this evening as we light the holiday tree here
at the Riverfront Park.
Let me thank the District and Brenda Sanderson, and the Downtown Partnership and Tom Turner for providing us with refreshments and serving us here tonight.
Let me thank the Antioch High School Choral Ensemble for making this annual event more special with their singing.
Let me also thank Shelly Fairchild for joining us here tonight. We are very pleased to have her here with us. Tomorrow night she will be performing on the stage of the Grand Ole Opry for the first time, so this is a very special treat to have her here with us.
There is something very special about this season and Nashville. Maybe it goes back to the first settlers arrival on Christmas Day 225 years ago. Those 250 settlers crossed the frozen Cumberland River near here and established the community that became our city.
Today that city stretches out before us down Broadway with its the festive lights. Tomorrow the street will be filled with floats and bands and balloons for the 52nd Annual Nashville Gas Christmas Parade.
This is just the first of many activities downtown and all across the city to celebrate this holiday season. There will be concerts and plays and Nutcracker performances. There will be religious services reflecting our diversity of faiths and the wide array of celebrations that mark this season. There will be time for family and the sharing of traditions.
Tonight, with the help of four students from the Antioch Choral Ensemble, we will share in one of those traditions by lighting this tree. So if Trevor Hunt, Erica Jackson, Ryan Badgley and Raquel Pulecio will join me here, we will get under way.
Ready, let’s count down. Five, four, three, two, one. Happy Holidays.