Salisbury celebrates the holiday season

"This is the first time in 29 years that we’ve had warm weather,” Helen Meittinis, president of the Community Association of Stewart Avenue, joked on Dec. 10. She was speaking to a crowd of fellow Salisbury community members who flocked to her organization’s annual holiday lighting ceremony on that unseasonably warm late afternoon.

The festivities were held just as the sun went down last Thursday. Families gathered around a stage situated at the grassy intersection of Carman Avenue and Lake Lane to sing songs, meet Santa Claus, and of course, see the tree and menorah light up the sky.

The fun began when volunteers handed out ornaments and decorations, which were made by scouting groups and Bowling Green Elementary and W.T. Clarke High School students, to children. The youngsters, who wore festive garb, happily decorated the tree.

Meittinis led the formal ceremony, commending all community members for making Salisbury a wonderful place to live and play. While she thanked an array of volunteers, East Meadow School District leaders and locally elected officials in attendance, Santa Claus himself pulled up to the park in an East Meadow Fire Department truck. Children ran over to meet him while Clarke music students sang holiday classics to the crowd.