Downtown Holiday Decor

You may have noticed a change in downtown YGK’s holiday decor. The retro shooting stars that once adorned downtown lamp posts are no more and have been replaced by large white balls covered in twinkly white lights. The trees, many of which are newly planted as a result of past phases of The Big Dig, have lights wound around their trunks, giving them a pretty silhouette, even at night.

Many cities all over the world, especially those that attract a lot of tourists, make a big effort to decorate their downtown for the holidays to make it an appealing place to shop, dine and play. I was fortunate enough to visit Rome and Paris last Christmas and was impressed by the very pretty, but also simple decor found throughout the cities. In Rome, lights cascaded across roads, strung from building to building, creating a twinkling canopy, sometimes meeting in the middle with beautiful lit up balls and coloured lights. In Paris, one street had a similar decor with the lights meeting in the middle where a chandelier hung above traffic every 100 metres or so. Just down the road from us, downtown Napanee does an incredible job lighting up the streets by completely covering the buildings with blocks of coloured lights. If you haven’t seen it, it’s worth the drive.

Whether you celebrate Christmas or another holiday at this time of year or not, I think most of us can agree that seeing our downtown lit up and decorated at this dark and chilly time of year can be a real pick me up. Considering this, this week we want to know:

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It’s easy to argue that the style of decorating, especially considering the tree in Market Square, has a strong lean towards Christmas. Do you think Kingston should work harder to create a more culturally diverse holiday decor? What kinds of things could we add to be more inclusive? Perhaps the neutrality of simple white lights is enough to show we are celebrating without being too specific. What are your thoughts on how Kingston decks its downtown streets?

Thanks to Marie for today’s photo of downtown Napanee.