At 4:30 pm, as dusk enveloped the island, Lopez families and friends gathered around enclosed bonfires, sipping coffee and beverages as they waited for the official village lighting to take place. Finally the signal was given by the fire engine and lights in a colorful burst everywhere illuminated trees and buildings and beat back the winter night.

Five years ago, Becky Smith, Vice President of the Lopez Chamber Board and Daren Holscher, co-owner of the Bay Cafe, started this village lighting ceremony and it has grown each year. Smith said, “In the beginning, we did it to help the shops in the village. We encouraged the shops to stay open later while the ceremony was going on and even encouraged the use of coupons and specials for the businesses. The shops have a tradition now of staying open later during the lighting so that folks can peruse their goods while we’re all in the village, but as it’s grown, we have a parade and gatherings, and a caroling group sings as well.

“We’ve also made the switch to using lights which are the low wattage LED bulbs. So far we have replaced 75 percent of the lights with the LED lights. They use a fraction of the energy that normal light bulbs do. They are more expensive but we decided to make that investment to decrease the impact on the environment,” Smith said.

Lopezian Irene Skyriver put together a parade that included two people twirling flaming staves and several fire jugglers that lit up the night with pyrotechnics. Parade-goers carried floating Japanese globe lanterns, and a small brass and woodwind band finished the parade.