Christmas Lights

Holiday celebrations in Presque Isle bring warm illumination to winter nights. The Central Aroostook Chamber of Commerce organizes the annual Holiday Light Parade, sending lighted floats and vehicles along Main Street from the UMPI campus all the way to the North Street Plaza. Outside City Hall on Second Street, the city holds its Christmas tree lighting ceremony accented by glowing street luminaries. Local residents also recognize Presque Isle's Third Street for staging one of the area's largest neighborhood Christmas light displays each year, while dozens of lighted trees decorated by local businesses glow indoors during the Festival of Trees at the Aroostook Centre Mall.

In Houlton, Christmas lights in Aroostook County create another bright downtown tradition. Organizers at the Greater Houlton Chamber of Commerce light up the evening with a Holiday Light Parade down North Street into Market Square, where generators power thousands of lights on festive floats before Santa Claus officially illuminates the town Christmas tree. The chamber's downtown building is traditionally adorned with white Christmas lights, fresh garlands, and wreaths, while the Houlton Parks and Recreation Department decorates Monument Park with illuminated installations and wire structures, including a lighted moose. Nearby, the Health Services Foundation presents the annual Festival of Trees at the Sunset Farm barn on Foxcroft Road, displaying dozens of decorated, illuminated trees and wreaths for charity.

Across the rest of the County, towns welcome the season with their own luminous gatherings. Caribou celebrates Christmas in Caribou by brightening downtown and Lyndon Square with seasonal light displays, illuminated trees, and the lighting of the downtown Christmas tree. In Fort Fairfield, an annual lighted parade brings glowing vehicles and community floats down Main Street. Limestone's holiday parade sees tractors, trail groomers, emergency vehicles, and trucks adorned in colorful strings of bulbs travel along Main Street beneath custom seasonal fixtures funded by community donations. Down the road, the Mapleton Lions Club and the Tri-Town Holiday Lighting Committee care for dozens of sponsored commercial light fixtures along Main Street, and Fort Kent pairs its holiday festivities with a public tree lighting at the Fort Kent Public Library.