Lehighton will hold its ninth annual Christmas in the Park in the upper and lower parks on Sunday.

Sponsored by the Lehighton Parks and Recreation Board, the event will include 165 trees, and eight wreaths that will line the foundation in the Lower Park, according to Autumn Abelovsky, secretary.

Abelovsky said the Pale Moon Players will stroll through the parks and carol, while a new addition will be a performance by the Ukrainian Homestead who will sing some traditional Ukrainian Christmas songs.

She said food vendors will open at 3 p.m., and added there will be funnel cakes, doughnuts, hot dogs, soups, filling and graving, macaroni and cheese, coffee and hot chocolate.

Abelovsky said children can enter to win kids bicycles from 3 to 5:15 p.m. The announcement of bicycle winners will take place at 5:30 p.m.

Santa will arrive on a Lehighton Fire Truck at 4 p.m. Kids will decorate two smaller trees on either side of the amphitheater in the Upper Park and visit with Santa from 4 to 5:30 p.m.

The tree lighting ceremony will begin at 6 p.m.

Abelovsky said there will be a Parks and Recreation Board tree in front of the borough municipal building in memory of former Mayor Clark Ritter, who had been chairperson of the Recreation Board.

She said the trees arrived Thursday morning, and can be decorated until noon on Sunday.

“They have three days to decorate, because we like the decorating to be a community event itself,” Abelovsky said. “Everyone’s kind of in the park decorating.”

Abelovsky noted that for the tree lighting ceremony, a new feature is a new sound system in the parks that was installed by the Lehighton Downtown Initiative so that the entire ceremony can be heard throughout both parks.

She said there are 31 sponsors this year, and added the trees are adopted by local organizations, businesses, and families, and added they have a lot of memorial trees.

“This year, we have a lot of returning people, but we also have quite a few new ones as well and are looking forward to welcoming them to our event,” Abelovsky said. “When you live in small community like Lehighton, it’s kind of the old saying ‘everyone knows everyone’, but when you hold an event like this, that saying becomes the reality, and it gives you such a sense of spirit and friendship.”

Abelovsky noted that the Lehighton Parks and Recreation Facebook page is currently not available.

She encouraged the group’s followers to follow along on the Lehighton Downtown Initiative’s Facebook page for important information about the Christmas tree Decorating and Lighting in the Park.