Utica community celebrates holiday season with tree lighting event

UTICA — Utica community members came together for the Downtown Utica Christmas Tree Lighting Celebration on Dec. 13.

The event started at 7 p.m. at Memorial Park, down the road from Jimmy John’s Field. Attendees could enjoy a bake sale, as well as visits with Santa, at the Utica Public Library on top of visits from Jack Skellington and Sally from ‘A Nightmare Before Christmas’ and Buddy the Elf from ‘Elf.’ Organizers also encouraged attendees to visit the various bars and restaurants in the downtown area.

“This is our hometown,” Utica Council member Thom Dionne said. “I know I’ve said this a lot of times, but we have a small footprint of 1.7 square miles here in Utica where we cast a large shadow. … They like us so much here in Macomb County, they put our names on the side of all the buses. Our Utica school teachers are 1,800 strong, and 28,000 students come off right here — this is where it originated from. So, again, thanks for coming downtown to Utica. It’s our pleasure to have you.”

Attendees were entertained by multiple Christmas song performances from Vanessa Carr prior to the official tree lighting. Carr is a singer and dancer from Michigan who attended Utica High School. She performs in various music genres including Broadway show tunes, the music of the Great American Songbook, opera, international favorites and soulful standards. Carr has sung the national anthem at Detroit Lions and Tigers games and performed on the Detroit Free Press Marathon course and during the holiday season at Frankenmuth’s Bavarian Inn, among other events around and outside the metro Detroit area.

During the tree lighting celebration, Carr sang Christmas favorites such as “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” “A Marshmallow World,” “We Need a Little Christmas,” “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas,” and “Feliz Navidad” as well as other songs. She also performed with members of the Dance Class Youth Troupe during her set.

“I’m so happy to see you here tonight,” Carr said. “You are an amazing crowd for braving this cold weather. It’s so good to have you here today. We’re going to have some fun.”

The Utica High School marching band was also scheduled to perform at the event but had to cancel due to the cold.

While these performances were happening, the Utica Fire Department continued to collect donations for its Stuff an Ambulance and Battle of the Bars challenge. New, unwrapped toys were stuffed into one of Utica’s ambulances while Battle of the Bars invites local bars and restaurants to compete by collecting the most toys and monetary donations with the highest combined total winning the traveling trophy at the tree lighting ceremony. This year, Al’s Hideaway Bar & Grill at 43126 Van Dyke Ave. took first place.

“We want to thank them for providing all the toys, cash donations as well as cash donations . . . from many businesses across the city,” Utica Fire Department representative Mike Ryan said. “We take all those cash donations, we take one of our local Boy Scout and Girl Scout troops and we take them shopping, and they were a part of stuffing and actually decorating the ambulance. So, I want to thank local (Cub Scout) Pack 252 and our Girl Scout troops for coming out and decorating our ambulance as well.”

The event came to a close with the official tree lighting and fireworks.For more information, visit cityofutica.org.