Santa Claus announced he was making his list of what children wanted for Christmas, of who’s been nice and who’s been naughty.
And he brought his elves to help him as the Distillery District’s Winter Village opened last week with the lighting of a five-storey Christmas tree adorned with thousands of lights and hundreds of perfume bottles featured by Christian Dior.
Meaghan Clark, marketing manager at the Distillery, said more than 3,500 people attended opening night Nov. 13 at the Distillery in east Toronto. She said preparing for the annual event was a lot of work, but she was excited.
The giant 55-foot Christmas tree and the decorations were sponsored by Christian Dior Parfums, said Laurie J. Weir, president and founder of Next Public Relations.
Clark said Dior has been sponsoring the event for the last three years and the opening night’s VIP night was their party. The tree lighting ceremony is a way of communicating that they are open for business, she said.
But all the lights, work and glitz are really about seeing the kids when Santa comes, she said.
“When we do the countdown, and when the tree is finally lit, like just seeing their little faces, honestly that just kind of moves me,” Clark said.
She said she enjoys watching person after person adoring the tree and having their picture taken in front of the tree.
Clark said that’s when she knows all the work was done right when everyone comes in to capture their tree moment.
Laurie J. Weir, president and founder of Next Public Relations, said the city is in a very festive mood and she can feel that the spirit is alive.
“Although we may not be Taylor Swift, we do promise to put up a magical show for you tonight,” Weir said on opening night. That magic is expected to continue throughout the season.
She said the tree’s design features a signature golden holiday motif created for Dior by Italian artist Pietro Ruffo and features a myriad of lights and a glowing star centrepiece.
“There are 70,000 lights, there are 1,003 Dior replica fragrance bottles and ornaments on the tree and is estimated to have taken 4,000 hours (since about July) of craftsmanship to create this beautiful tree,” she said.
Weir thanked all the supporters of the Distillery Winter Village, which has been ranked on the international best Christmas list around the world.
“We have also been named in Cathay Pacific and Lufthansa Airline Magazines and have topped the CNN travel list,” she said.
Weir said it has been said that it is not Christmas in Toronto unless one sees the Christmas tree on one’s social feed.
“The event is not only a beautiful gathering for the holidays, it actually employs 500 seasonal workers and contributes to the local economy, supports crafters and makers and has been a beloved tradition for over a decade,” she said.
Weir said they have more than 30 food options at the Village and nine holiday bars. She said one of her favourite photo sites is at Santa’s sleigh.
She said the vintage sleigh is on Gristmill Lane after staff found it in a barn during the summer and refurbished it.
Brock Wunderlich, a digital marketing creator, was visiting the Distillery Winter Village and making videos for his Instagram page.
“I’ve been coming here pretty much every year for the last like five years. I just like the atmosphere, it is a good vibe,” Wunderlich said.
He said it’s a good time to visit early in the season because it is not too busy because when December comes this place is packed.
“I think every year they do a good job, I love how they put the branding of Dior on the tree like they decorated it, it feels luxury, so overall they do a good job every year,” Wunderlich said.
He said he was there to shoot a couple of things including getting a hyperlapse, a photography technique that creates motion shots of one point at different distances, of the Christmas sign because everyone puts it on their Instagram stories.
“Big photo is the Gooderham sign with the clock tower, grab a couple of shots of that, the Spirit of York building is really cool and then obviously just the people,” he said.
He said he likes to do street photography which is mostly shooting around the place and capturing the essence of Christmas.
But the season is about being nice and Santa said the North Pole was very busy today because there were many gifts to pack. After all, the kids were super good.
He asked a couple of kids what they did nice and one of them said she helped a classmate with speech problems and another one said she hugged her family.
They wanted Santa to bring them a Barbie Lego set and a pet fish.
