This holiday season, the Village of Questa partnered with the Vida Del Norte community coalition to organize the Evening of Lights which was held on December 4 in the village town center. During the Evening of Lights there was a tree lighting, a Christmas Tree tour, music, food, local craft sellers, a light parade and Santa even made a jolly appearance.

During the days before the event, workers from the village, Vida Del Norte and volunteers spent the afternoons outside in what was thankfully glorious weather to string up lights and arrange decorations. The village staff lined up beautiful handmade farolitos/luminarias that were lit one by one before the Evening of Lights. Mayor Gallegos went out with workers from the village to choose the tree from the Questa forrest for the town center. Kit Carson Electric Cooperative graciously came out to string the lights on the tree. Valerie and Armando Vigil made a beautiful wooden sign with the word “Joy” on it outlined in lights with material that was generously donated by Questa Lumber & Hardware.

During the Evening of Lights, Santa sat by the tree to spend a little quality time with the kids and families of Questa. The joy sign illuminated next to Santa to make the scene even more cheerful for family photos. Vida Del Norte provided Santa with some brown bag treat sacks full of apples, oranges, peanuts and candy to hand out to the kids. Vida was even able to sneak in some brochures about the dangers of vaping and underage drinking into the snack sacks to help spread some information about preventing substance misuse for the holidays. The Granite company generously donated the candy for the sacks.

Wendy Medina and her daughter Alexandra Romero who own the local catering company called Evelyn's Treats made delicious green chili stew, pasole and biscochitos to give away. Valerie Vigil came from Rael's coffee to give out hot coco and Bubba's BBQ food truck was there all evening selling world class BBQ.

For the Christmas Tree Tour, the Questa Girl Scout Troop and The Alta Vista Elementary School Art teacher Ms. Maya MacDonald had all the kids grad's Pre-K to 6th make ornaments to hang on trees sponsored by local businesses. During the tour people who found their ornaments received prizes from the Village of Questa.

Before the tree was lit, Mayor Gallegos made a speech to thank everyone who participated in making the evening possible. Once the lights turned on, the scene came to life. Families got a chance to mingle and children got to play amongst the magical glow of the lights making all the hard work that went into the display very rewarding.

The Light Parade was lead by the Taos County Police and Questa Fire Department blaring their sirens and playing Christmas music. Many local businesses and community members volunteered to be in the parade, creating elaborate holiday floats, and spectacular light displays on their vehicles. It was impressive to see how much effort and attention to detail people put to transforming their vehicles into holiday works of art.

One of the best floats of the evening was on display after the parade outside of Rael's Coffee Shop. This float was a Nativity Scene that was made by the Denise and Edward Vigil in memory of Enriquetta Vigil. A photo of Enriquetta and her beautiful smile was illuminated in lights next to the nativity scene on the float reminding us that like Enriquetta, the hard work that we put into making our community a better place can make a difference and continue to inspire into the future.

Vida Del Norte and the Village of Questa want to thank all of the local businesses and volunteers who participated and made donations to make the Evening of Lights a special and memorable time for the holiday. Also, a special thanks to everyone who came out on the 4th to help spread cheer and a sense of pride in our Questa community.
Text taken from an article published in the January edition of the Questa Newspaper. Written by Rachel Kuc' - Download the January Edition of the Questa News