White arches stand at each corner of Weissport’s park, flanked by green and red striped poles staked into the ground.

Together, the arches and poles surrounded the park, marking its small perimeter with festive strings of multicolored lights. At least, that’s what’s visible by day.

When night falls, the intricately decorated park’s details shine. Lights wrap the trunks of nearly every tall tree, ornaments hang from the branches of smaller pines and white icicle lights dangle from the bandstand roof.

And at 5 p.m. Saturday, the Christmas season had officially arrived in Weissport.

“We’ve got 20,000 lights in the park this year,” Duane Dellecker, vice president of the Weissport Recreation Committee, said last weekend during the borough’s lighting ceremony.

Santa also made an appearance in Weissport that evening, greeted by a line of waiting kids. Palmer Olving, 6, of Summit Hill, was one of them. 

When it was his turn to sit on Santa’s lap, Olving asked for one thing: a koala hat to match the bear one he wore on his head. Olving said koalas are among his favorite animals, along with puppies, narwhals and unicorns. 

Olving said he wants to be a vet - an occupation he hopes to one day study in Australia. 

The borough’s annual lighting ceremony wasn’t the only one to commemorate the holiday season’s start last weekend; Lansford ushered in the season on Saturday night with an arsenal of new lights after its original ones were found broken just weeks before the lighting ceremony. 

But Weissport’s commemoration is one of the newest in the area. Initiated in 2016, the event is only four years old.

Still, what Weissport’s lighting ceremony might lack age, the borough makes up for in history. In fact, for Dellecker, a Lehighton resident, the town’s extensive past is one of the reasons the recreation committee pours back into it.

“The history of this town is unbelievable,” Dellecker said, pointing out that Weissport was founded more than 200 years ago. 

“It’s the history of this town that I think attracts us all to it,” he added.

Captions:

Palmer Olving, 6, of Summit Hill, tells Santa what he wants for Christmas during the annual lighting ceremony in Weissport on Saturday. DANIELLE DERRICKSON/TIMES NEWS

A snowman light brightens the Weissport Historical Park. DANIELLE DERRICKSON/TIMES NEWS

Santa and his reindeer light up the Weissport Park. DANIELLE DERRICKSON/TIMES NEWS