Jack Menashe – known for his family’s Christmas-lights-laden home – got to throw the switch on another set of lights tonight: The ones decking the West Seattle Junction Hometown Holidays tree.

Joined onstage by wife Linda Menashe and four of their 12 grandchildren, he praised West Seattleites for loyalty to their community, and Junction Association executive director Lora Radford for her hard work to strengthen the business district. The lighting event’s format was different this year – instead of packing entertainment and speeches into a half-hour or so preceding the lighting, this year the entertainment was spread across the two hours before the ceremony, which itself lasted just a few minutes, starting with Lora introducing Santa and the Menashes:

Junction Plaza Park was shoulder-to-shoulder for the countdown:

In case you missed the performances, we recorded some highlights – here’s the School of Rock-West Seattle performers:

Endolyne Children’s Choir (whose annual holiday concert is next Saturday):

We featured The Not-Its in our earlier Night Market report; the entertainment slate opened with Mode Music Studios (WSB sponsor). After the lighting, it was back to browsing the Night Market, maybe even saying hi to Santa. Lots more Hometown Holidays festivities to come – including Shop Late Thursdays – one of which includes the holiday-season West Seattle Art Walk on December 13th – and the Santa Bus on two Sundays, December 9th and 16th. It’s all in our WSB West Seattle Holiday Guide, too.