Immediately following the annual Holiday Tree Lighting on the Boston Common on Thursday, Dec. 4, Mayor Michelle Wu joined the Friends of the Public Garden and the Committee to Light Commonwealth Avenue Mall at the Alexander Hamilton statue to light up Commonwealth Avenue Mall for the holidays.
For the past 25 winters, the Commonwealth Avenue Mall’s trees have been illuminated with festive holiday lights. This seasonal display — inspired by the illuminated tree-lined boulevards of Paris — was the vision of the late Boston Parks Commissioner Justine Mee Liff and philanthropists Joan and Ted Bernard Cutler.
Their shared sense of civic pride inspired others in the neighborhood to join in supporting this effort, and under the auspices of the nonprofit Friends group, which works in partnership with the Boston Parks Department to care for and maintain the Public Garden, the Commonwealth Avenue Mall, and the Boston Common, the all-volunteer Committee to Light the Commonwealth Avenue Mall was established to help continue this beloved holiday tradition.
The lights on the Commonwealth Avenue Mall will be lit from Arlington Street to Charlesgate until late March.