by Eric Tort and Alan Lee

As we all know, every year, there is an annual holiday tradition in Plaza de Cesar Chavez Park, downtown San Jose, offering musical and animated exhibits, glittering lights, and the 60-foot city Christmas tree. It is organized as a non-profit corporation known as Christmas in the Park, Inc. It is comprised of volunteer citizens, who donate time and energy to always make this a memorable event. This has been a tradition in San Jose ever since the 1950s. It first started as a small holiday display, but has grown since then. The Plaza de Cesar Chavez Park was chosen as the area for the event because of its enormous size of two acres and it has been this way since the 1980s. Christmas in the Park draws around 450,000 people to downtown every year. Also, Christmas in the Park needs many volunteers and if you want to be apart of the volunteers who put this together then go there and ask if there are available jobs for you.

The park opened November 24, 2006 and is open through January 1, 2007. Visiting hours run every day from 9 a.m. to midnight. This is always a great time of year to spend with close friends or family, where you can walk through the park admiring the propped up Christmas dolls that tell the story of Christmas. Also, there are many events that take place, such as: the City Tree Lighting Ceremony, Christmas in the Park Exhibit, Community Tree Decorating, Christmas in the Park Nightly Entertainment, San Jose holiday Parade, Santa’s Story Telling Time, Toys for Tots Drive, Children’s Ornament Making Session, Raffle Drawing, and much more. So, even if you miss one event there are many more to go to. You better make it to Christmas in the Park before you miss all the laughing, fun, music, stories, and other events that will make this Christmas memorable.

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