All are invited to this free community event to kick off the magical holiday season in Livingston. There are many giveaways and the only costs are for food and drinks. The Depot Park trees will be lit during the event with over 100,000 lights on 36 trees and they will Light Up Livingston through the New Year, thanks to the Holiday Lights Committee and donors, and Downtown is lit up with 90 large light pole snowflake lights thanks to the Downtown Livingston Business Improvement District, Tourism Business Improvement District and Holiday Lights Committee. 

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The event is scheduled on National Small Business Saturday to encourage attendees to support locally-owned small restaurants, shops and businesses in Downtown Livingston both before and after Light Up Livingston to strengthen the local economy. Replacing previous years’ Shop Small Scavenger Hunt is a new Downtown Business-led Small Business Saturday Passport for adults to kick off their holiday shopping season by visiting at least 8 of the participating Downtown businesses for a passport stamp, leaving their passport at their final shop. Each shop will donate a prize valued at $20 or more, participants will be contacted after the drawing to pick up their prizes by mid-December. The list of businesses is here.

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Light Up Livingston features fun for the whole family fun including:
🎄 Free kids activities and crafts inside the Depot organized by Links for Learning; Rudolph candy cane craft, ornament photo frame, beaded candy cane craft, cinnamon stick ornament, Giant Gift Jenga, bean bag toss, letters to Santa, coloring pages, Pin the Ornament on the Tree until 5:30. After 5:30 as Santa greets children inside the Depot, there will be classic kids' movies and sing-alongs.

😀 Adults, enjoy a free chair massage while your child waits to see Santa from Ancient Elements Massage and Leaning Tree Massage & Therapeutics

❄Candy Cane hunt kicks off at 4 pm with hundreds of candy canes hid in the Depot Park by the Livingston Recreation Department 

🚂 Model Railroad Club will be running their trains downstairs in the basement between the Gourmet Cellar and the Depot (only 20 people at a time at the exhibit, thanks for waiting for turns to visit!)

❄Hayrides in the Depot Park with a John Deere tractor, thanks to in-kind support from Frontier Ag Solutions and straw bales from the Spur Line

🎤 Meet Emcee Livingston City Manager Grant Gager

🎼 Livingston Park High Chamber Choir will sing carols in the new Big Top tent until Santa arrives. The Livingston Christmas Tree will be wired for sound and play carols.

👸 Meet Elsa from Frozen, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and other characters and take holiday photos.

🎄Tree Lighting Ceremony at 5:30 pm with Santa magically turns on the thousands of lights in the Depot Park

🎅 After 5:30 Santa will head inside the Depot to meet children with help from his entourage of elves (parents welcome to take photos of their children with Santa) Parents, enjoy a free chair massage while your child waits to see Santa! 

📸Faces-in-holes Christmas Rail photo board, and take photos in front of the Livingston Christmas Tree, Depot Tree, and the miniature Rail Engine.

Food & Drinks: 

🌮 Great Food Trucks; Livingston's own Bad Burger, Miss Lucy's Chuckwagon and more!

🍺 Enjoy beer, wine and mulled wine at Trackside (formerly Uncorked) next to the Gourmet Cellar from Katabatic Brewing

☕️ The Livingston Depot Center tent: hot chocolate to raise funds for the Depot Foundation (you can spike them with wine level low abv cream liqueur at Trackside.)

🍿 The Livingston Tourism Business Improvement District will be giving away fresh Empire Twin Theatre popcorn, scarves and red and white striped hats to the first several hundred guests, plus a limited amount of swag and mugs.

💡 Holiday Lights of Livingston, a community-funded nonprofit that lights the Depot trees, will be in attendance. They are community funded and receive no County, City, or tax funds. Thank you for supporting their work.

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Everyone is encouraged to shop, eat, drink and be merry at Downtown and area businesses. When you spend locally in Livingston, your dollars circulate seven times in the community, so we applaud everyone who supports Livingston’s small business economy.

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We look forward to a bright and beautiful holiday season full of events and opportunities to support Livingston businesses.