Santa Claus continued his tour of Carbon County on Sunday at the Lehighton Tree Lighting and Christmas Celebration in the downtown parks.

Santa arrived at 3 p.m. on a firetruck from the Lehighton Fire Company and was greeted by the many children and adults in front of the municipal building.

Santa and the children then decorated a tree in front of the municipal building, and then he greeted the children with candy canes as they took turns telling him what gifts they wanted for Christmas throughout the afternoon.

People enjoyed the delicious foods from Pancho’s Mexican Food Truck, Lehighton; the Cotton Candy and Funnel Cake trailer; and Debbie’s Pie in the Sky Bakery, Albrightsville.

There were also games and crafts for the children, and volunteers from the Carbon Chamber & Economic Development were on hand to register children for the bicycle giveaway.

At 5:30, the winners of the bicycles were drawn at the amphitheater, followed at 6 p.m. by the lighting of the Christmas tree and all the individual trees in both downtown parks. The Pale Moon Players entertained the crowds with some Christmas carols.

Autumn Abelovsky, a member of the borough council and the parks and recreation board, thanked everyone for attending.

“It feels so good to be back together for an in-person tree lighting ceremony,” Abelovsky said.

This is the sixth year people have been able to sponsor trees in the Lehighton park.

“Last year, we couldn’t safely come together, so we made the sad but necessary decision to make some changes to our event. We held a gradual lighting over the course of the weekend and lit the big tree, as well as completed a tour of all the trees in a live Facebook event,” Abelovsky said.

That video received over 40,000 views from people all over the world.

The borough will once again offer a virtual tour live on Facebook at 7 p.m. Saturday.

Lehighton Mayor Clark Ritter thanked all who volunteered to help make the event possible: Lehighton Borough office and administration, the Public Works team, the Power and Light Department, the students of BHA, Lehighton Fire Department, Lehighton Police Department, The Pale Moon Players, Lehighton Borough Council, and everyone who decorated a tree in the two downtown parks.

The sponsors of the celebration were: AOK Heating, Air Conditioning, and Electrical; Ateira’s on First Street; the Carbon County Community Foundation; Dance With Kim Studio of Performing Arts; Flexer Masonry; Home Comfort Solutions; Jim Thorpe Neighborhood Bank; Koehler Marvin Realty; Kreitz Refrigeration, Heating, and Air Conditioning Mobile Services; Lehigh Fire Co. No. 1 Social Club; Lehigh Valley Health Network; Lehighton Outdoor Center; Liberty Auto Glass; ReMax Real Estate, Pam Gothard; Stan Graver Sales and Service; Ovsak Funeral Home; NextEra Energy, which donated lighting and decorations; and Crystal Spring Tree Farm for the many trees in the park.