I'm old enough to remember the string of multi-colored Christmas lights which used to zig-zag over Townsend Avenue shortly after Thanksgiving every year. When the cops weren't looking, we'd throw snowballs at the lights ... friendly competition among us bored preteen boys. But we'd always feel bad if we broke a bulb. Maybe our competition was somewhat behind the string getting shorter and shorter each year; the lights used to stretch from near the Memorial Library to nearly the Opera House. After a few years, the string stopped near McClintock Street, and finally, they weren't put up anymore.

During the past few decades, the Chamber of Commerce has made "Christmas bright" by lighting up the centerpiece of downtown, the Memorial Library lawn and its trees. It's always been a pleasure to walk along the sidewalks and see the "glow" emanating from the library property.

As most of you know, there will be "more glow" this year as the downtown businesses and the town of Boothbay Harbor will be participating in the Boothbay Festival of Lights. Some businesses (with help from public works employees and the fire department) have already strung some of the LED lights, which were craftily used last year by Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens for its Gardens Aglow event. And, as most of you know, that event drew nearly 36,000 people to CMBG, so some people got together and formed the Boothbay Festival of Lights to capitalize on that popularity. The "BFL" will also include the town of Boothbay — the town's public works crew could be seen hard at work putting lights up on the Common this week — and the town of Edgecomb.

The outfit helping to organize the Boothbay Festival of Lights, Green Tree Events, is working with businesses, the towns, the Chamber of Commerce and individuals, to make this a grand event ... "a world class event," as was mentioned in a recent meeting of the participants held at the Opera House. Businesses that normally shut down or cut their hours will be open through the end of the year, social media is being used to publicize the events happening around the region, and hopefully, visitors will soon be coming to enjoy what the Boothbay region has to offer during the holiday season. The Boothbay Festival of Lights and Gardens Aglow will run from Nov. 18 through Dec. 31.

To find out more and to keep abreast of what’s happening, check our website’s featured pages, Boothbay Festival of Lights and Fall Into the Holiday Season.