WARREN - The city's annual Christmas celebration will be bigger and better this year, with more activities to appeal to a wider audience, organizers said.
Festivities will begin at 5 p.m. Friday with the arrival of Santa Claus and his elves at Courthouse Square, followed by the lighting of the community Christmas tree by Mayor Michael J. O'Brien.
There will be demonstrations by the Mahoning Valley Phantoms hockey team and the Mahoning Valley Ice Skating Club at the ice rink, which will open to the public at 6 p.m.
As in past years, children can have their photos taken with Santa inside the downtown log cabin. This year, children who visit with Santa will receive a letter in the mail after the holiday event. They also will receive a holiday treat bag.
Free horse-drawn carriage rides around the square, courtesy of Gene's Jewelers, will be available. There also will be storytelling inside the Bookmobile and performances by four different Warren G. Harding choirs at 7 p.m., which will be broadcast live on WANR Radio 1570.
Several new events will take place this year, including craft stations and face painting for children, and traveling carolers from Warren G. Harding High School, who will walk around the square from 6 to 7 p.m.
The Ohio Department of Soil and Water Conservation will have a craft station where children can make ornaments to hang on an outdoor tree, while the Trumbull Art Gallery will have a craft station to make ornaments for an indoor tree. There also will be a face painting station inside the gazebo.
Jennifer Campbell, promotions committee chairwoman for Main Street Warren, said the holiday celebration will end with a new event called "A Community Christmas Carol," hosted by the music ministries department from the historical First Presbyterian Church. The performance begins at 8:15 p.m. and will feature a bell choir and piano and vocal performances.
Campbell said tours of the church, which is a historical landmark, also will be available. In addition, the Warren G. Harding High School robotics team will unveil its new design, "Holiday Stars," around the gazebo area.
Campbell said the goal of the promotions committee was to expand the annual holiday event and give more people a reason to come downtown. She said downtown merchants and restaurants will be open during the celebration.
"We wanted to create more activities for families to enjoy and a draw a larger crowd downtown for the entire evening. So we added more events aimed at children, while putting together the community Christmas carol for older residents," Campbell said.
Some of the downtown merchants will be having giveaways and there will be a drop box for the U.S. Marine Corps Toys for Tots program.
Tom Crowley, owner of Gene's Jewelers, said he and his wife, Patricia, have been involved with the downtown Christmas celebration for many years, but this is the first time the business is sponsoring the horse-drawn carriage rides around the square. He said he heard someone was planning to charge adults $5 for the rides and he didn't want to see that happen.