Here comes Santa Claus - and lights!

The work starts each year when October arrives. Eight full-time employees are dedicated to one proposition: Making your Christmas a little bit brighter.

Literally.

Since the first of October, these workers have been decorating The Coeur d’Alene Resort, the Hagadone corporate building and Santa’s playground near Duane and Lola Hagadone’s house on the lake. By the time they’re finished, one and a half million lights are burning brightly, and 250 spectacular displays are ready to dazzle.

Are you ready?

Thanksgiving Day typically heralds the opening of the Christmas season but it tends to be a private time for friends and families. This evening’s parade and Hagadone Corp. lighting ceremony and fireworks show is, for some 30,000 holiday revelers, the rousing start to the season. It’s a gift from the Hagadone family to all of us fortunate to call North Idaho “home.”

Throughout the season, Hagadone Hospitality also operates holiday cruise ships to Santa’s workshop at the North Pole. Unbeknownst to many, the North Pole relocates from the Arctic ice cap to the northwestern edge of Lake Coeur d’Alene for the holiday season. (The polar bears’ loss is Coeur d’Alene’s gain.)

Without trying to make this sound too commercial — the Hagadone Corp. owns the cruise ships and the newspaper you’re reading right now — these holiday cruises have become a destination unto themselves. Tens of thousands of people ride those big boats, sip hot cocoa and greet Santa every year. Many of them come from outside Kootenai County, and the tradition has become so ingrained that the treks here have now crossed generational bridges for many families. Each holiday season is celebrated by another Journey to the North Pole on Lake Coeur d’Alene.

On behalf of the Hagadone family, you’re warmly invited to tonight’s festivities. We contend that there’s no finer opening than this to the greatest season of all.