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Aurora welcomes holidays with Santa, fireworks, ukuleles and, yes, singing toilets

Ukulele musicians, roller derby competitors and singing portable toilets will light the way Friday, Nov. 22, when Winter Lights Aurora opens the holiday season with an inventive display of merriment in downtown.

Warming up the crowd before the tree lighting and fireworks display, a parade will head northwest on Downer Place from Water Street to River Street starting at 6:30 p.m.

The aforementioned ukulele players are with the City of Lights Ukulele Society, said Gina Moga, the city's special events manager.

"It's going to be a walking ukulele band doing Christmas music," she said. "We also have a crowd favorite, the Aurora 88s Roller Derby. They're going to skate down the street."

Moga said each parade entry is required to stay with the holiday lights theme.

"Everybody is required to do something with lights," she said.

Representatives from the fire department and emergency management agency will march, along with units from SciTech, an Aurora science museum, a bicycle group from All Spoked Up, a group from the Paramount School of the Arts and Chariots for Christ, a Christian motorcycle association. Marchers also will include the Aurora Rotary Club, the Fox Valley Ballet and the Lehnertz Avenue group.

The latter, Moga said, is "a street (of neighbors) that gets together and does a Christmas story."

The Fox Valley Festival Chorus, a community group that toured Italy in 2017 and has performed at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, will be joining the celebration for the first time.

Girl Scout Troop 1508 will present its Share a Scarf program, wherein visitors can donate a scarf or take one.

Large crowds are expected in downtown Aurora Friday night for the city's annual Winter Lights celebration. Courtesy City of Aurora

"The girls have been making and collecting scarves for the better part of the year," Moga said.

The procession also will feature costumed characters, courtesy of Aurora Downtown.

"The Aurora Regional Fire Museum will have an antique truck and Little Mr. and Miss Aurora will ride in it," she said.

And the Jingle Johns, a collection of singing toilets, will entertain with holiday songs.

Dancers from the AKA Dance Studio will accompany Santa when he arrives at the end of the parade.

"The girls and boys all dress up like reindeer and we sit them in the float in front of Mr. and Mrs. Claus," Moga said.

Santa will be available to meet with children in the Wyckwood House following the tree lighting.

Moga said Little Mr. and Miss Aurora will share the tree lighting honors, flipping the switch together, with the help of Santa and Mrs. Claus and Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin.

The evening will be capped by a fireworks show. Spectators are asked to gather on the east side of the Downer Place bridge for the best viewing vantage point. Downer will be closed to traffic during the event, which is usually attended by thousands of revelers.

• • •

Winter Lights Aurora

When: 6 to 9 p.m. Friday, Nov. 22

Where: Downer Place and Water Street

Admission: Free

Info: aurora-il.org

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