Everyone’s dreaming of a white Christmas. Everyone except the folks who light downtown Denver for the holidays-they’re thinking green.
In an effort to show more goodwill toward Earth, this year the trees lining the 16th Street Mall will be lit for the first time with more than 300,000 energy-efficient light-emitting diodes.
“They pull 90 percent less electricity than a traditional incandescent light bulb does,” said Kate Haher, pedestrian environment manager for the Downtown Denver Partnership.
“They burn for over 200,000 hours, you can jump on them and they don’t break. They’re very heavy-duty, but you can buy them in a strand of 50. The idea is the same (as traditional bulbs).”
As in years past, the white lights will be strung through about 220 trees along the mall, transforming the sidewalks into twinkling walkways.
Greenprint Denver, a conservation initiative backed by Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, inspired the switch to LED lighting, said Downtown Denver Partnership public relations and communications manager Sarah McClean.
“It’s kind of an all-encompassing program that leads to awareness, and through awareness into action,” McClean said. “(LEDs) were a product that we immediately decided that we needed to push to businesses downtown.”
LEDs will light the holiday nights elsewhere in Denver, too. The Denver Botanic Gardens is setting up its first three LED displays at the annual Blossoms of Light exhibit.
“Over the next four years we’ll be replacing (traditional lights with LEDs),” said Holly Shrewsbury, public relations manager at the gardens. “The gardens have always been committed to conservation and sustainability, and we want to be in line with Greenprint. It just makes sense.”
The Denver Zoo beat the trend by a year. The zoo introduced LEDs to their Zoo Lights displays in 2005, and this year 70 percent of the displays will use the energy-saving lights, according to Tiffany Barnhart, the zoo’s public relations manager.
The 16th Street Mall’s LEDs debut tonight at the Downtown Denver Grand Illumination Lighting Event. It all starts at 6:30 p.m. with a countdown to light the lights at Union Station. Carolers, crafts and snacks will keep revelers warm before they start the trek to the Civic Center for the City and County Building lighting ceremony.
The paths to the 6:45 p.m. lighting will also be awash in holiday cheer.
Lights in Skyline Park, on Larimer Street and the new LEDs on the 16th Street Mall should keep kids agog and grown-ups smiling along the way.
Of course, the Grand Illumination is just the first flip of a switch on Denver’s circuit of holiday lighting celebrations:
9News Parade of Lights 8 p.m. Dec. 1 and 6 p.m. Dec. 2. Another venerable downtown Denver tradition, the Parade of Lights brings back all the favorites: giant balloons (including the cute penguin parade mascot), elaborate floats and, naturally, Santa in his sleigh. Tickets for the grandstand in front of the City and County Building are $15 for adults and children 13 and older, and $12 for children ages 2 to 12. Children under 2 are free if they sit on a ticketholder’s lap.
The parade can be viewed for free anywhere along the parade route, from the Civic Center to Tremont Street, west on 17th Street to Arapahoe Street, south to 15th Street, and back east to Glenarm Place.
Grandstand tickets are available at ticketswest.rdln.com, by calling 866-464-2626, or at any King Soopers or City Market.
Blossoms of Light at the Denver Botanic Gardens Dec. 2-Jan. 21, 2007; 6 p.m.-9 p.m. nightly. It’s Blossoms of Light’s 18th birthday, and it’s time to celebrate. The Botanic Gardens at 1005 York St. will be aglow with more than a million lights this season, as well as seasonal entertainment each night. New exhibits, like a giant display of water lilies in the Monet Garden Horseshoe Pool, will keep the show shining.
Admission is $8 for adults and $6 for children. Botanic Gardens members receive a $2 discount. (Blossoms of Light will be closed Dec. 3.) To learn more, visit botanicgardens.org or call 720-865-3500.
ICE+SNOW Dec. 3-31, 4-10 p.m. nightly at Coors Amphitheater, 6350 Greenwood Plaza Boulevard, Greenwood Village. The Museum of Outdoor Arts presents its first-ever holiday light display with ICE+SNOW, a huge exhibit that will take over 20 acres around Coors Amphitheater. Animated and stationary displays with titles like
“Alice in Wonderland” and “Frost King” will be scattered among warming stations, concessions and an “Old World Holiday Village.”
Admission is free. For more information, visit ice-snow.net or call 303-220-7000.
Zoo Lights at the Denver Zoo Dec. 8-31, 5 p.m.-9 p.m. nightly. This year’s edition of Zoo Lights promises to be wilder than ever, with three more acres of lights added to a zoo’s-worth of creature-themed displays.
Additional nights to celebrate Kwanzaa (Dec. 23-26) are on the schedule, as are nights with Santa (Dec. 8-23) and up-close animal demonstrations on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays throughout Zoo Lights. Tickets are $7 for adults, $4 for children under 12 and $6 for seniors 65 and older. Children 2 and under are free. For tickets and more information, visit denverzoo.org, or call 303-376-4800.
