EDITORIAL: Welcome to your holiday oasis

There is an oasis here that is politics-proof.

The Coeur d’Alene Resort, owned by the Hagadone family, is much more than a towering centerpiece overlooking beloved Lake Coeur d’Alene. It is a gathering place where people are welcome no matter who they vote for, where they worship or which teams’ T-shirts they proudly wear.

Today that oasis will shine brighter than at any other time of the year. The Resort’s annual Lighting Ceremony will include a million and a half decorative bulbs, a brilliant tempest of fireworks in the sky and a sea of lit candles in the cold hands of warm-hearted holiday kickoff revelers.

The annual joyfest which heralds the arrival of the great North Pole elf himself includes a parade sponsored by The Coeur d’Alene Downtown Association. That begins at 5 p.m. today but plan to hit Sherman Avenue early; large crowds of beaming children of all ages have been waiting a whole year for this free treat, and they’d be as inclined to miss it as much as they’d skip Thanksgiving dinner.

After the parade comes The Resort’s lighting ceremony and fireworks. Consider the show your first Christmas gift of the season from the Hagadones, who continue a tradition dreamed up decades ago by Duane Hagadone and Jerry Jaeger.

This will be the third Holiday Lighting Ceremony since Mr. Hagadone’s passing, but be assured that his presence will be unmistakable. If you can’t feel it when the light switch is flicked, when the fireworks he loved concuss in your chest, when happy families huddle close, just look up at the brightly lit Resort and Hagadone Corp. headquarters.

His legacy on the lake lives on, lucky for us all.