Westmont Lights Tree, Sings in the Season

Westmont kicks off the Christmas season with the 12th annual Christmas Tree Lighting on Kerrwood Lawn, Wednesday, Dec. 4. The lights on the 150-foot redwood tree, affectionately known as the Pickle Tree, will glow at 5 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

Hundreds of students, alumni, and neighbors will join the celebration with carols, warm apple cider, cookies and Santa Claus. Santa will be inside Kerrwood Hall posing for pictures with people who bring a canned good or unwrapped toy to donate to The Unity Shoppe, a local volunteer program that helps the less fortunate in Santa Barbara. Westmont alumni and their children are invited to arrive at 4 p.m. for Santa photos.

A student band, Bethany and the Boys, will perform and lead participants in traditional Christmas carols.

The Westmont College Student Association has selected Glenn Town, professor of kinesiology and department chair, to deliver the annual Pickle Address. Town taught at Wheaton College for 21 years before coming to Westmont in 2003. He will retire this spring and move to Bend, Ore.

For more information, please call (805) 565-6056 or email alumni@westmont.edu.