Photo Gallery: Turn on the Holidays in Belmont

Belmont Center turns on the lights and welcomes the holidays.

Under a silvery moon, the lights glowed bright in Belmont Center Thursday night, Nov. 29, as Santa Claus hit the switch to offically signal the beginning of this holiday season. And this year's Turn on the Town holiday and Christmas tree lighting, the 22nd edition sponsored by the Belmont Center Business Association, was one of the best attended with families and teens wandering Leonard Street partaking in the face painting, cupcakes, fried dough, free hot chocolate and a petting zoo with actual llamas. In addition, Rudolph and Frosty the Snowman greeted little ones as the Belmont High School Madrigal Singers entertained though the night as "snow" fell from the roof of the Belmont Savings Bank's garage. But the real attraction Thursday …

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[Photo Gallery] Turn on the Snow: The Holidays Come to Belmont

For one young reveler, the most wonderful part of last night's "Turn on the Town" celebration wasn't Santa but the "snow" falling along one block of Leonard Street. "It's NOT cold," he said, picking up handful of artificial snow cascading from the roof of the parking structure adjacent to the Belmont Savings Bank. One bank employee told a parent watching the snow fall that if nature – while cold, the night was clear and above freezing – wasn't going to provide Santa Claus with a seasonal backdrop, "then we will." So snow was falling at Belmont's 21th annual 'Turn on the Town' Holiday Celebration in Belmont Center, where hundreds of residents – from new born to seniors – mingled to see the center's evergreen tree in the open lot next to the…

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