FAIRHOPE – After cutting back the event in 2020 due to COVID-19, Fairhope marked a full return to a traditional start to the holiday season with the lighting of the downtown trees Thursday, Nov. 18.
Crowds filled the streets for more than a block in most directions at the intersection of Fairhope Avenue and Section Street.
“If you could be up here on this stage and see the crowds tonight, you would know that we’re home to many folks who enjoy this kind of traditions,” Mayor Sherry Sullivan told the audience while looking out over the crowd from the stage set up for the event.
She said the pandemic made people realize how important it is to come together and continue traditions.
“For the past couple of years, people have started to focus on traditions. They were missing, their holiday traditions, their hometowns and their family became even more important,” Sullivan said. “People wanted to get back to their roots. They wanted to come back home. It’s created a time where people could live wherever they wanted and many of them chose to come back here to Fairhope. So, we’re happy to have those people who have moved here during the pandemic and those people who lived here before.”
Sullivan thanked city employees, particularly those in the Electric, Public Works and Police departments, for their work putting lights in the trees and setting up the event.
“They work so hard every year to put on this for our community,” Sullivan said. “So, tonight what we’re doing is bringing back all the activities and the traditions that make holidays in Fairhope very special.”
Vernon Scheer from Ken and Vernon’s Barber Shop threw the switch to light the trees. Sullivan said Scheer has also been a tradition in Fairhope, cutting hair downtown since 1967.
“Vernon joined Charlie in the barber shop in 1967 and never looked back. He has been part of downtown Fairhope for 54 years,” Sullivan said. “There’s not many businesses that can say that.”
Sullivan said the tree lighting ceremony has been a tradition for many years in downtown.
“The tree lighting began with a vision by Joyce Stowe of Stowe’s Jewelers. Joyce and other people in the community wanted to see lights in the trees after they were planted,” she said.
Fairhope lit the trees downtown in 2020 but did not hold a large ceremony with music and a stage.
On Thursday, the Fairhope High School band played Christmas music and the school’s Choral Ensemble sang a selection of holiday songs.
The 2021 display also included additional lights. The Fairhope City Council voted in July to buy 5,000 more lights to be added to the display.
