Sunnyside Arch
Nov. 18, 2013 By Sean Brosnan
Sunnyside will officially usher in the holiday season Tuesday with a tree lighting scheduled to take place under the Sunnyside Arch on 46th Street and Queens Boulevard.
The LaGuardia Choir will open up proceedings at 6 p.m., followed by the Sunnyside Drum Corp at 6.15 p.m. Santa Claus is also expected to make an appearance for the many kids that are sure to be in attendance.
Elected officials City Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer and State Sen. Mike Gianaris are also slated for an appearance.
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I am a Catholic who does not respond well to liberal knee jerk reactions like the one from BigCofNYC. I say Merry Christmas, except to my Jewish friends. Get over it!
No; lights, shopping, decorated trees are related to Christmas. If you want to mention the time period between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day as “the holiday season,” that’s fine. But there are specific holidays involved. It’s a Hanukkah Menorah, not a Holiday Menorah. And when a tree is decorated with multicolored lights, it’s called a Christmas tree. Ask anyone. Don’t try to dilute the tradition with your Thumper-Grinch cartoon mentality.
If you were the ones doing all of the wrapping of each branch with all of those lights, you’d want them to get as much mileage out of them as possible too! Going to all of that trouble for just 3 or 4 weeks isn’t worth it. The reason for doing it so early is to get the jump on the Manhattan stores that are trying to convince you to spend your money there! Supporting our businesses here in Sunnyside helps make projects like this one possible. If more people shop in Sunnyside, maybe next year all of the trees CAN be lit! @Joe, it was a HOLIDAY celebration, not just Christmas!
It was a beautiful celebration! Merry Christmas to my fellow Christians!
I wish they had put lights on the other six trees near the arch instead of just those two. It would have made the area look really nice.
@Me2: Too early, too early is an “awful” response. Gross exaggeration. Nov 19 is just too early to light a Christmas tree.
@Me2
You didn’t have anything positive to say either except to stifle the free speech of others. You had nothing nice to say so why didn’t you take your own advice and shut up?
If you GRINCHES would have bothered to attend the ceremony, you would have enjoyed it! The Sunnyside Drum & Bugle Corp did a great job of providing music and there was free hot chocolate and cookies and the elected officials and business organizations were there to kick off the season with the lighting of the trees by the 46th Street Station under the Sunnyside Arch which was lit in multicolored lights. You need to learn the “Thumper Principle”… “If you can’t say somethin’ nice, don’t say nuthin at all.” Happy Holidays to ALL, regardless of your heritage!
Anonymous must watch mslsd the station of lefties
Santa Claus comes from the Dutch- their Sinta Klaas is modeled after St. Nicolas. No relation to Lucifer, the fallen angel.
Christmas trees, lights, and yes Santa Claus have a LOT to do with the American tradition of Christmas. It stopped being just religios a long time ago and people have the right to celebrate it the way they choose. Christmas was barely even obeserved by some of the colonists in America. December 1659 through 1681- you could get fined if you were caught celebrating Christmas. Crazy Puritans.
Santa Claus comes from the Dutch: “Sinta Klaas,” modeled after Saint Nicolas. Nothing to do with the Prince of Darkness. Did you hear that on the FAUX network?
This tree is probably better than the one Snoopy and I had.
Santa Claus derives from Sinterklass (Dutch) who was modeled on St. Nicholas. The idea that there’s any connection to Satan is the sort of utter nonsense you would hear on FAUX News.
The comments made by the 5 of you above really are awful. If you have nothing nice to say don’t say anything — you’re miserable so “SHUT UP”.
Hoove Hearted lays with the equine. Relations with beasts is sinful, btw.
Too early, too early.
Santa and lit-up trees have nothing to do with Christmas. Not the true meaning of it anyway. I doubt Jews and Muslims serious about their faith want to have it trivialized and commercialized in the same way. Santa is an anagram for satan, btw.
Great to have community unity…. that is what our town needs… what a fantatic event… now we need an event to celbrate chanuakh for all our jewish friends and families… and the rest of of cultural mixed town like the turkish curltual society… and the rest of our cultures in our area….
A Xmas tree lighting underneath a big arch that looks like a middle finger..cool!