The Tompkins Sq. Park Neighborhood Coalition and East Village Parks Conservancy will host the 12th Annual Holiday Tree Lighting Celebration at Tompkins Sq. on Sun., Dec. 14 from 4-5 p.m. in Tompkins Sq. Park, near the southeast corner of the central lawn. Michael Lydon will lead a trio of musicians to join carolers from Theatre for the New City, who will lead everyone in songs of the season. Veselka restaurant will provide refreshments. The carolers’ Victorian costumes will be provided by the New York Shakespeare Festival.
The evergreen tree was donated to the park in 1992 in celebration of the neighborhood and in remembrance of neighbors lost to AIDS. As part of the celebration, neighborhood residents and businesses traditionally join together in making a donation to a neighborhood charitable cause, in the past having made donations to the Robert Mapplethorpe Residential Treatment Facility for people with AIDS at Beth Israel Medical Center; Hetrick-Martin Institute; God’s Love We Deliver and to the children of Beth Israel’s Pediatric AIDS program.
Contributions can be sent to: Tompkins Square Park Neighborhood Coalition, P.O. Box 955, New York, NY 10113-0955. For information, call Albert Fabozzi or Kevin Dowd at 212-334-9055.
