Crowds Watch the Christmas Tree Lighting at Castle Medical Center

And I ain’t kidding. The Castle Medical Center has its Christmas tree lighting ceremony each year. We decided to attend the event this year, and apparently so did everyone else. I must say whoever did the advertising for the event should be recommended. This was the most advertisements I remember for this event, and it was very effective. Everywhere we went, there were crowds and lines of people.

We got to the trolley stop in Kailua town after 6pm for the 7pm ceremony and waited in line.

Trolleys would come by but some already had passengers, making pickup of waiting people more discouraging.

While I don’t mind a round trip trolley ride through Kailua town, I think this should have been disallowed 30 minutes prior to the tree lighting to maximize awaiting passenger pickup. That and while one trolley would load and unload passengers, a second trailing (and empty) trolley would have to wait before it could take on passengers.

Once we got on the trolley (around 6:57pm), it was a nice short ride until we hit the neighborhood around Castle. With so many cars parked alongside the small streetways, a two-lane street easily became a single lane and trying to fit a trolley through there took some driving skills. The entire time though, our trolley driver was in good spirits making the best of the situation even making jokes about where everyone was going.

When we arrived at Castle, guess what awaited? More lines. But this was a line of people leaving the event before the lighting.

The tree lighting itself was fast and kind of impressive, but by that time, the kids had tuned out.

Everyone perked up a bit when Santa made his entrance.

Here’s a closer shot of the Christmas tree.

We did manage to get a kids tattoo and some flashlights, but the free Starbucks coffee and water were already wiped out. Getting out of the event took some time as well and probably the time spent going to and leaving the event was longer than our stay at the event.

So thanks to the Castle Medical Center for hosting the event and annually decorating their landmark tree. But maybe the advertising (and crowds) needs to be reduced next year.

A few more pictures from the Castle Medical Center Tree Lighting.