On Friday, Dec. 5, Fremont held its second annual tree lighting at the Downtown Event Center Plaza. As before, the event involved shopping vendors, food trucks, hot drinks from Fremont Chamber of Commerce, kids’ crafts and live performances. New this year was hot chocolate from Stardust Coffee House.
“We had a very successful event the first year,” said Fremont economic development director Donovan Lazaro. “When something genuinely goes really well you want to keep the secret sauce, keep the magic alive.” The city continued to focus on small Bay Area businesses for the vendors, as well as doing some additional curation of the vendors to make sure there were ones that fit a wintery or gift-giving theme.
Photos by Stephanie Uchida
Photos by Stephanie Uchida
There has been one change since last year. The tree has “grown!” At 22 feet, the first year’s tree received some criticism for being too short. So the city took advantage of some January deals to purchase an extension for the tree. Now the tree is about 40 feet, almost double the original height.
“We’re not quite Rockefeller Center yet,” said Lazaro, “but we’re moving in that direction. We’re moving upwards.”
