The hap-happiest season of all

"Santa saw me!" 7-year-old Joseph Grant told his mom after the jolly old elf made his way down the chilly main street of Savage to take his seat in a store and hoist children onto his lap.

Kids circled a giant Christmas tree as their parents shivered around a pair of fires, producing s'mores. Motorists pulling off the nearby highway paused, confused by the blocked-off street where teams of horses raced up and down with families in wagons.

With its first Winterfest in the city's reviving downtown recently, Savage joined a growing list of suburbs -- especially those creating or restoring traditional town centers -- that have started, enhanced or transformed civic Christmas celebrations. It's a classic American mélange of community, capitalism and religion. Organizers know they're on delicate terrain.

"We're not targeting it as 'Christmas,'" said Lori Anderson, head of the Savage Chamber of Commerce. "We want everyone to feel welcome. But part of downtown is churches ... so when the choir from the Catholic church decided to jump in, I didn't tell anyone what to sing or not to sing."

The city with perhaps the most celebrated new town center -- St. Louis Park, for decades the heart of the region's Jewish population -- has no ceremonial tree-lighting. In neighboring Edina, however, the mayor lights a tree at 50th and France.

Often officials and participants are motivated by their own memories of childhood Christmases in village squares. And some cite a longing for the traditional comforts of community in the wake of Sept. 11, 2001.

"That event really touched us as to how we are all vulnerable," said Linda Walton, president of the Chamber of Commerce in Chanhassen, where a growing holiday gathering includes carols sung around a bonfire.

Most are also about business. City officials in Savage bemoan the fact that many people in newer suburban subdivisions don't even know there is a downtown Savage. And Shakopee merchants, reviving the tradition of a giant Christmas tree downtown, are waging a battle with discount behemoths out on the highway that bypasses the historic town center.

"That is what we are competing against," said Lauri Glenn, executive director of the city's Downtown Partnership. "We are trying to get people to remember that we have a downtown ... and we'd like them to check it out as well as the 'big box.' Downtowns have that quaint little historic feel that you don't get with Costco or Wal-Mart."

That thinking is what links a small-town festival like Savage's -- hoping for a couple of hundred and drawing at least twice that -- with a city like St. Paul, which drew 1.7 million people to a revived Rice Park celebration featuring a tree with 60,000 lights.

"The hope is that people seeing these things say to themselves, 'I didn't realize downtown St. Paul was so beautiful, let's come back another time,'" said Sue Gonsior, spokeswoman for the Capital City Partnership.

It's tricky, though, to revive Christmas traditions while sidestepping the religious roots. And cities deal with that in differing ways.

Some, while promoting the events on city websites, take care to distance themselves. Belle Plaine labels its tree-lighting as a "chamber event." Edina referred all inquiries to the 50th and France business group. "It is not a city activity," a spokeswoman stressed.

Downtown Stillwater this year switched from a Victorian Christmas theme to "Hometown for the Holidays," a subtle move that simultaneously makes it more American, while putting less emphasis on Christmas.

Chaska this year staged its third "Multicultural Holiday Celebration" in City Square Park, sponsored by the city's Human Rights Commission and the high school's Diversity Club. In neighboring Chanhassen, Walton said, "we have transitioned from a 'Christmas' tree to a 'holiday tree.'"

Whether the terminology change is enough, however, is debatable. Mendota Heights, a traditionally Catholic community with a growing Jewish population, is a case in point. The city helped create a new town center, with a publicly owned village green surrounded by shops and living units.

"We wanted that park to be where people would gather," said City Council Member Sandra Krebsbach.

Mendota Lights, organized by the project's developer, Ross Fefercorn, is in its second year. It's a privately staged event that bills itself as the city's "official" holiday tree-lighting and features the mayor and a Catholic school choir.

"We see ourselves as 'more than one' religious community," Krebsbach said. "I'm sure you'll find a menorah at City Hall. As city officials, we are merely invited to come."

Even so, Rabbi Morris Allen of Beth Jacob Congregation in Mendota Heights, feels uneasy. The city is adjusting to changing demographics, he said, and has become "basically a very tolerant little community." Still, he said, cities need to be cautious about civic festivals in the Christmas season.

To cast it as a "holiday" celebration, as Mendota Heights does, doesn't quite cure the problem, he said: Jewish holidays comparable in magnitude to Christmas take place in the autumn, not December.

"It's a fine line," he said. "Everyone is entitled to celebrate who they are. But the public square needs to be a place of celebration for everyone."

David Peterson • 612-673-4440