Kade Gajdusek, Contributing Photographer

A choir of schoolchildren from Betsy Ross Magnet School ushered in the holiday season with a crooning rendition of “A Marshmallow World” to an enraptured crowd at the 111th annual New Haven Christmas tree lighting.

On Thursday evening, hundreds of New Haveners gathered on the green to enjoy 23 local holiday vendors, amusement park rides, live musical performances and Mr. Klaus himself. The tradition, which dates back to 1913, is now hosted by the New Haven Department of Art, Culture and Tourism.

“The people in the city of New Haven are second to none,” said Robert Kinney, a public service administrator for The New Haven Free Public Library. The festivities are a good chance for face-to-face outreach for the library, he added. “This is a very big victory for us. We are out here on the green and bringing the books to the people.”

Kinney was running the Bookmobile for the NHFPL. The truck advertised countless books to check out, library cards and story hours where the young could escape the cold.

Other vendors lined the north green near Elm Street. There, visitors stepped into the tented Holiday Village, perusing delicacies ranging from mini donuts to hoodies and crocheted animals.

“It’s been a joy to see that we aren’t giving up on the trees … the coldness doesn’t stop people from participating,” vendor Janice Parker said. “It’s a fun family outing — we need that in the world we are living in right now — we need togetherness and fun especially from town to town.”

Parker has been selling Candy Cleanse every year since New Haven has allowed vendors to participate. Her business advertises “a good flush” through varied detox drinks and teas that help support the immune system and general health.

She indicated that the event has been a good opportunity to build new in-person customer relationships. She prioritizes giving out samples on the first day and counting on selling to returners in the subsequent days.

“The first day people just want to walk in and take a look, then they come back on another day,” another vendor Melba Crowley concurred. “I sell a lot for gifts [and] hope to do better than the last time.”

A few stalls away, Melba Crowley sold various necklaces and pieces of jewelry made from an assortment of semi-precious stones as a part of her hobby-turned-business Designs by Melba. Vending opportunities like the Tree Lighting allow her small business to gain exposure.

In the frigid pseudo-snowflake weather, snaking lines sprawled from a carousel, cookie decorating station and to secure a picture with Santa.

The 55-foot tall Norwegian spruce was brought to life with over 30,000 coruscating lights and a New Haven-high-schooler-made star. The tree was gifted to the festival by the Wallingford-based O’Day family.

“That baby [tree] was born in 1982 and Bob and Laura O’Day decorated it in their yard until they couldn’t decorate it anymore, now it’s 60 feet tall,” Bibiane Borgorsen, a friend of the O’Days told the News.  “I’m so excited. I’ve never been to a Christmas tree lighting … It is better than I anticipated.”

Borgorsen and her friend, Patricia Garceau, distributed hot chocolate to chilled attendees. Garceau clarified that Bob O’Day had applied to have his tree take center stage on the Green for four years before it was finally accepted for this season.

But the omnipresent music of carolers, orchestras and choirs was possibly the festival’s great uniter. Youth groups like Trinity on the Green Choir, John S. Martinez Sea and Sky STEM Magnet and Betsy Ross Arts Magnet School performed classic Christmas hymns to eager ears and live-streaming WTNH 8 video cameras.

“I was here last year,” resident Robert Dempsey said. “[I like] watching the kids have fun and the nice tree from Longford,” Dempsey added that Christmas and the festivities on the Green reminded him of time with his late mother.

The Holiday Village will stay on the New Haven Green until Saturday, Dec. 5.