We’re in the heart of West Seattle Junction Hometown Holidays, with the next big event – Thursday’s Holiday Art Walk – just a few nights away. But first, we have followups from this past Saturday night’s festival (missed it? here’s our coverage).

LIGHT-COSTUME WINNERS: Maybe even more of a highlight than the tree lighting – the first-ever GLOWS (Glorious Lights Of West Seattle), featuring commissioned artists promenading in elaborate costumes and choosing festival attendees to take the stage for an audience vote. Tonight we know more about the winning group, all local students – Chris Mackay from the West Seattle Junction Association, who organized the festival, shared the photo and info she received from one winner’s mom on behalf of the group:

I am writing on behalf of the winter fairies who won the group costume contest on Saturday night. First, I’d like to say thank you so much [to the Junction Association] for hosting such an inspirational event! When the girls heard of this contest a few weeks ago, they became really excited and began a series of meetings to plan their costumes. These are all 6th-grade girls from Madison Middle School and costume design became their after-school focus. They did everything on their own, from self-organization to the construction of headbands, wings, and in some cases, sewing their own skirts and scarves. This was such an empowering experience for them! They probably logged 20-25 hours in total working on this project. Their goal was to make it on stage as one of the finalists but they truly hadn’t dreamed of actually winning. Needless to say, they are soooo thrilled!!

You can see them onstage during this video (which was featured in our Saturday night coverage). The girls are, from left in the photo above, Daphne Cox, Paige Bailey, Katara Andes, Manon Coffinieres, Azalea Geoghegan, Sophia Marroquin, Mikalya Holloway. WSJA plans to do it again next year, so start planning YOUR costume!

HOT-CHOCOLATE TALLY: The Hope Lutheran School Student Council served up a LOT of free hot chocolate:

The grand total – 1,000 cups!

MISSED ELVIS? We had some upload challenges with our video of Tony Colinares‘s stage-shaking performance in tribute to Elvis Presley, so it’s not in our Saturday night story, but we finally can share the video tonight:

MORE ABOUT THURSDAY NIGHT: Now looking ahead – during the Holiday Art Walk, the Silver Belles will be caroling all around The Junction, Santa will be roaming, and luminarias will add to the holiday lights – that all starts at 6 pm Thursday. Three Art of Music performances at 6 pm, too – see who’s where, here.

Check the WSB West Seattle Holiday Guide for even more seasonal fun, now through New Year’s!