“Are you going in to watch?” a steward asked, almost beckoning a woman into a designated area for a little-publicised event on Mary Street in Dublin city centre late on Thursday.
“Nah, we’re going straight to Penneys,” she replied.
Passersby in the background stopped and glared at a stage surrounded by barricades in confusion, asking stewards: “What’s going on?”
Some, possibly unimpressed with the answer that the mysterious event was the turning on of the Christmas lights, went on about their business as usual, while others pushing buggies joined the slowly building crowd.
RM Block
The event was kept somewhat under wraps, presumably to avoid overcrowding, and came as a surprise to many going about their lives.
The “surprise to end all surprises”, as stated by those MCing the event, however, was the arrival of Santa Claus, who said he travelled from the North Pole to the “famous city” of Dublin to see the lights.
In what sounded like a strong Dublin accent, he advised children present to “be good” before he went on to sing Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.
One woman passing, perhaps frustrated with the lack of space available to her, rolled her eyes on seeing the large crowd gathered as they sang various classic Christmas songs.
Within the designated area, meanwhile, children were dancing in excitement.
Among those dancing were the children of Lorna Carrig, who rushed into the city centre to make the event on time.
She was about to turn on to the M50 when she heard about it.
“My cousin rang me and I was driving home from Lucan, so I just took a U-turn,” she said, gripping a cup of hot chocolate. “It’s just really magical.”
The Christmas lights were switched on by Darcie Gavin (8) and Liam Tomney (7) from Tallaght, Co Dublin, representatives for the Little Blue Heroes Foundation, a Garda charity supporting families of children with serious illnesses.
The pair, dressed as gardaí, appeared awestruck as they came on stage to the crowd before they pressed a big red button which lit up Mary Street and Henry Street ahead of them.
Fake snow sprayed from the stage as those within the crowd cheered, clapped and posed for photos.
The ceremony, usually held on Grafton Street, was moved to Mary Street this year in an effort to support a “revival” of the north side of the city, said Richard Guiney, chief executive of business group Dublin Town.
It was also an opportunity to highlight new lights on the street at a cost “just short of €350,000″, a bill footed by businesses in the city centre.
It took a crew of 30 people four weeks to install the Christmas lights across 24 streets, he said. The lights are energy efficient.
“The display on Grafton Street, for example, uses a third of the energy of a domestic shower,” he said, saying the electric bills, also footed by local businesses through Dublin Town, are “quite modest”.
Trade so far this year has been “a bit challenging”, he said, as more people are coming to the city centre for experiences such as dining rather than for material goods.
“They’ll do about 35 to 40 per cent of the annual turnover in the next six or seven weeks, so we put our best foot forward and make the city as welcoming as possible and hope that we see as many people as possible,” he said.
He said he believed the lights would result in higher footfall in the city centre while also creating a welcoming atmosphere.
“There will be kids coming today to see the Christmas lights who will carry those memories into the next century,” he said.
