No reindeer in sight, but Santa posed with the sleigh that was filling with food-drive donations right before Our Lady of Guadalupe‘s “Light Up the Night” gathering tonight. Out in the street between the OLG Parish Life Center and church, “The Starry Crowns” led caroling:

OLG parishioner and Seattle Channel host Brian Callanan emceed again this year, which also meant leading the countdown to switching on the lights now shining bright outside the church:

Though the church no longer hangs lights on the towering evergreen at the corner of 35th and Myrtle, you could argue the lights close to the ground, including smaller trees, are even brighter:

A cheery crowd, hundreds strong, joined in song, including the traditional keyring-shaking during “Jingle Bells” – listen!

P.S. An extra meaning to this year’s “Light Up the Night” – checking around as we finish this story, looks like what we and other semi-early arrivals saw in the northwest sky, heading east to west, around 6:50 pm, really WAS a meteor, noticed from B.C. to Seattle, according to this report. OLG pastor Father Jack Walmesley was among those who saw it, and mentioned it before his opening prayer.