It’s lights, Santa, action for smaller communities during the holidays

Chuck Sebus reaches up to screw in a clear bulb along the rooftop of a building in downtown Weston. He balances on a ladder while his brother, Billy, stands below for backup. It’s early November, already dark, and the two have just finished a day’s work.

But the Christmas season is quickly approaching, so the Sebus brothers have more work to do.

Chuck Sebus, who owns Sebus Brothers True Value, volunteers after work with his brother to make sure his city is decked out for the holiday season.

The KCP&L Plaza Lighting Ceremony is a tradition dear to those in Kansas City. And no doubt, when the switched is flipped just before 7 p.m. Thursday, thousands will turn out to see the 15-block spectacle of jewel-colored lights outlining domes, towers, windows and rooflines.

Overland Park

Karen Greenwood, community engagement director at Ten Thousand Villages Overland Park, volunteers on the Promotions Committee for Downtown Overland Park Partnership, a group made up of store owners or store employees in the downtown Overland Park district.

“I would say it is on the agenda just about every month,” Greenwood said of the planning that goes into the holiday festivities. “We are always talking about how to build that sense of community, whether it be as individual stores or how can we do the same thing outside of our stores.”

Greenwood, who has served on the board for six years, says planning includes everything from window-decorating contests to budgeting for decorations like wreaths and lights.

The city’s holiday season kicked off Nov. 18 with a tree-lighting ceremony.

Children took pictures with Santa while the Dickens Carolers, dressed in costume, sang carols as visitors enjoyed horse-drawn hayrides and sipped hot chocolate.

“We’ll take the stuff down at the end of December and once we box it up, we start talking about what we will do for the event next year,” said Kate Sweeten, executive director at Downtown Overland Park Partnership.

Sweeten and one other employee handle much of the planning, along with a group of 15 volunteers who make up the Promotions Committee.

Almost 8,000 white lights that line the buildings down Santa Fe Drive and 80th Street in downtown Overland Park brightened the town during the kickoff event.

Reaching Solutions employees spent about 16 hours testing the lights the week before the event.

“It’s always so pretty to see once it’s up,” Sweeten said of the decorations. “It really gets you in the holiday spirit.”

Sweeten and one other employee spent the week leading up to the event decorating the 11-foot tree, located by the clock tower, with red, silver, green, and blue ornaments. The two also decorated the clock tower patio with garland and lights.

“It’s a lot of advanced planning and a lot of extra hours (to) make sure everything is ready to go,” Sweeten said. But when Santa walks out and the kids burst with joy, it’s all worth it, she added.

The event costs the city $2,000, said Sweeten. Funding is built into the budget while the rest is donated from local sponsors like Shawnee Mission Health.

Mission

In Mission, visitors will experience the town’s Holiday Lights and Festive Sights event from 5 to 8 p.m. Dec. 2 at the Sylvester Powell Jr. Community Center at 6200 Martway St.

At the center, the city will combine its year-long Free Family Fun Nights with a tree-lighting ceremony. Santa and Mrs. Claus will appear on a horse-drawn carriage then head inside to visit with children. The Mission Business Partnership, a local merchant’s group, purchased new, small stuffed animals to give away to all the children who visit Santa.

Mayor Steve Schowengerdt will light the newly planted Christmas tree on the north side of the community center. Visitors can also enjoy horse-drawn carriage rides, hot chocolate and hot dogs, all free of charge.

Choirs from area schools will perform throughout the night.

Laura Smith, city administrator for the city of Mission, says the event began about 15 years ago.

“We usually start planning the day after last year’s event. But really heavy planning picks up in August or September,” Smith said. “The carriage rides we have to book fairly far in advance.”

Smith said several city staff members, Parks and Recreation, and volunteers from Mission Convention and Visitors Bureau oversee the planning. “Everyone sort of wears a hat,” she said.

Smith said more than 100 people volunteer throughout the holiday season.

Dale Warman, 76, a Leawood resident who lived in Prairie Village for 46 years, has served as a volunteer on the Mission Convention and Visitors Bureau for the past eight years.

Lynn Kring, 70, a Mission resident for 31 years, has served on the same bureau for the past 15 years.

Kring says volunteers meet once a month to plan holiday activities like coordinating with the schools for choir groups for the kickoff event. “We have done it so many times that it just gets easier and easier each time,” Kring said. “We get down to where it’s a process rather than a work of art.”

This year, Kring will monitor the s’more roasting outside near fire pits.

“I’ve seen more flaming marshmallows in the last three to four years than probably my entire lifetime before that,” he said with a laugh. “The kids love it.”

The event costs the city between $5,000 and $6,000, said Smith, with close to $3,000 of the cost donated from local sponsors.

About 3,400 white lights will line the buildings on Johnson Drive from Nall to Lamar avenues. Creative Displays of Kansas City Inc. owner Tony Naik, who oversaw the lighting, said it took three full days to hang the lights.

Smith said they are expecting several hundred people for the kickoff event.

Weston

Weston, a 20-minute drive from Kansas City, has a population of only about 1,700 people.

Like many cities throughout the metro area, the Platte County town depends on volunteers like Sebus to make it a destination for the holidays. Sebus spent three full days with his brother checking and replacing lights for the city’s holiday kickoff.

“We are the go-to people in town,” Chuck Sebus said. “We basically do this festival, Applefest, and a couple of the other festivals for the chamber.”

With its mom-and- pop stores and historic buildings, Weston’s visitors experience anything but big-box stores similar to those found in commercial areas across the metro area.

Festivities kicked off Nov. 12 with the Holiday Open House. Now the visitors will see the lighted tree at the corner of Main and Short streets, and may catch a glimpse of Father Christmas.

Preparations for the holidays begin months before.

“We want to keep our downtown shops in business, so if we put our best foot forward and we have nice holiday decorations and they are well-kept, it just adds to the ambience of small-town shopping,” said Mary Jo Heidrick, marketing chairwoman for the Historic Weston Chamber of Commerce and chairwoman for the November Holidays Decorating Committee.

Around eight volunteers begin meeting in August to start planning for the Christmas season.

The bulk of the phone calls and booking is a one-man band. Jenni Toy, office administrator at Historic Weston Chamber of Commerce, spends most of her afternoons leading up to the event making calls to book carriage rides, organize the children’s choirs and schedule the tree delivery.

Three volunteers spent about 20 hours the first week of November fluffing garland and bows and attaching them to the 23 light poles in the two-block area of downtown and the two bridges that lead into town, Toy said.

“It wouldn’t happen without them,” Toy said of the volunteers. “They know if we don’t do it, it’s not going to get done. That is just part of the pride of the town, really.”

Toy’s husband, for example, built this year’s tree stand with 8-foot wood planks.

Toy said the chamber spends a minimal amount for the holiday preparations and decorations — about $2,000 — including the carriage rides and toys for children.

The decorations are rarely replaced, and the tree is donated from a local tree farm.

But perhaps the biggest attraction of Weston’s holiday season is Father Christmas himself, whom the chamber hired 29 years ago.

Children can find Father Christmas walking the streets of downtown Weston every Saturday and Sunday until Christmas Eve. Kids are encouraged to stop him and ask for a picture.

Liberty

In Liberty, a town of about 30,000 people, volunteers are preparing for their own festivities. Hometown Holidays and Small Business Saturday kicks off Saturday, with activities that include pictures with Santa Claus, carriage rides, hot cocoa, and a chance to win prizes for visiting all the stores in its historic downtown district.

“Our whole vision and mission is to keep it an alive downtown business district,” said Vicki Vance, executive director at Historic Downtown Liberty Inc. The downtown district includes 25 retail shops and 11 eateries.

Vance said planning begins a year before the kickoff event. In fact, she and 15 others meet shortly after the festivities “while it’s still fresh in our minds” to determine what went well and what needs tweaking. “It’s on our minds all year,” she said.

Volunteers from five organizations — including the city of Liberty, Clay County, and a volunteer Promotions Committee — meet once per month throughout the year to plan for the combined events.

Organizing events and coming up with new activities all come with help of a volunteer team, said Patrick McDowell, promotions tourism coordinator at Historic Downtown Liberty Inc.

Work began at the end of October on the lights that will line the buildings around 1 Courthouse Square in downtown Liberty. The 4,000 individual bulbs took about a month to hang with a crew of about four people, said Cleaner Image owner Scott Carlos.

The city will transform into an old-town holidays scene with fire pits on the corners of the downtown square, horse-drawn carriage rides, carolers, hot chocolate and coffee.

The Saturday lighting ceremony begins at 5 p.m., when Santa and Mayor Lyndell Brenton will flip on the switch to the tree’s lights.

Sara Cooke, public relations manager for the city of Liberty, said a team of seven people from Parks and Recreation assembled the artificial, 24-foot tree Nov. 15. Cooke and a few other volunteers then filled the tree from top to bottom with large, red and silver balls.

Family-friendly activities begin at 2 p.m. Saturday. Kids can visit Santa and his elves on the third floor of the courthouse.

This year, the event comes with a price tag of $35,000 — including the new $25,000 wiring and lighting system.

Cooke said they expect up to several hundred people to turn out for the event.

Tom Underwood, 66, treasurer of the Promotions Committee for the Historic Downtown Liberty Inc., said Liberty offers visitors something they won’t find in other parts of the metro area.

“Christmas has become, as we all know, a pretty commercialized thing,” Underwood said. “We have put together a very warm and close feeling downtown and a feeling of belonging that I think you can see in people’s faces.”

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This story was originally published November 22, 2016 at 9:00 AM with the headline "It’s lights, Santa, action for smaller communities during the holidays."