Hundreds turn out for Wasilla tree-lighting festival

JOEL DAVIDSON/Frontiersman reporter

WASILLA -- Wasilla's historic Old Town Site was infused with new life Saturday night as several hundred people wandered through historic buildings behind the Dorothy Page Museum, listening to live bluegrass tunes, singing carols and scarfing down 31-dozen homemade Christmas cookies.

The annual Christmas tree-lighting celebration also featured the Tanaina Elementary Choir, a candy-house village built by Willow Elementary School students and a live Nativity performance by the Valley Christian Home Educators.

Other events included storytelling, hayrides, Highwire Quartet, a history exhibit from Mid-Valley High School, gingerbread houses and even Santa himself.

Most events took place in the Old Wasilla Schoolhouse, where roughly 75 people packed together, shoulder to shoulder, to sing Christmas songs, led by Ten Mile Junction, a local bluegrass band.

Members of the Wasilla-Knik Historical Society served snacks and beverages in the Capitol Site Cabin, right across from the school, as a steady stream of bundled celebrants filed in for warmers.

As the activities wound down, Wasilla Mayor Dianne M. Keller gathered everyone around a tall spruce tree in the center of the Old Town Site for the grande-finale tree-lighting.

This year marked the second-annual celebration of the winter festival. Two years ago, Keller asked Museum Administrator Tanya Cribb to revive a Christmas celebration in the Old Town Site.

"As we grow, we need to be able to get together with our friends and neighbors to have a meeting place where we can celebrate," Cribb said. "The museum was originally the community hall and it should be a place where people can gather together."