Celebrate the Season at the Alberta Legislature

This evening I drove over to the Alberta Legislature to take a walk through the lighted grounds. For 20 days each December the Legislature hosts Celebrate the Season, a holiday celebration with lighted trees, choir performances, and outdoor skating that kicked off this past Thursday. Over 50 choirs have been recruited for free daily performances in the rotunda; though I missed today's performances, I did get to enjoy Christmas carols played over outdoor speakers as I walked around the grounds.

300 trees, mostly those on the Legislature's northern grounds, are decked out with lights and a 60-foot tall white spruce has been brought in from Edson to be the grand centrepiece. Though each tree is lighted in only one colour, the hundreds of trees together create an enchanting array -- made extra picturesque by the surrounding snow. In addition to the natural trees, a number of cut trees are decorated in the snow-filled reflecting pool area in front of the Legislature's entrance.

The vast park-like grounds south of the Legislature feature fewer lighted trees, but are a popular destination nonetheless for the outdoor skating rink. Open until 10 pm daily with an adjacent heated trailer offering hot chocolate, this is one of the city's free outdoor skating rinks (and the first one to be open this year!). Even at 9 pm there were a handful of people out enjoying a skate.

The south Legislature grounds also offer a great view of the High Level Bridge, lighted tonight in flashing orange and blue in recognition of the Oilers' home game.

Though the lights, skating rink, and bridge were all impressive, the best sight was sitting right in the middle of the path to the parking lot: a snowshoe hare, in pure white camouflage (and this time I did get a photo before it absconded). These hares are more than twice the size of UVic's famous (former) rabbits and fascinatingly change from brown to white for the winter. It'll take a while before I get over the urge to whip out my phone camera whenever I see one.

Camouflaged! Can you spot it?

Celebrate the Season runs until December 23 and I'd definitely recommend stopping by to take a walk. With the days being short, checking out the lights is a way to spend some time outdoors after dark (...so basically 4:15 pm), in a relatively safe environment. Parking is free in the Legislature lot and the weather will be warming up this week, so the temperature won't be an excuse to miss out!

full moon