By Luiz Magaña
On Friday December 6^th amid the freezing cold of winter, more than 200 people huddled onto Plaza Tenochtitlan in Pilsen to watch a pageant of holiday caroling, traditional Mexican dancing, and the lighting of the holiday tree at the plaza.
Children across the various community schools, including Orozco Academy, Perez Elementary School, Ruiz Elementary, Perez Elementary School, and City Garden School, graced the stage to sing holiday carols in both English and Spanish to the delight of their parents. A group of youngsters dressed in Mariachi attire sang traditional Mexican Christmas songs, performers from the Redmoon Theatre paraded around in swan costumes, while Santa Claus posed with children for photos. The highlight of the event was the lighting of the tree on Plaza Tenochtitlan. This event was coordinated by 25th Ward Alderman Daniel Solis in collaboration with Greater Pilsen Economic Development Association with sponsorship from Charter One Bank and The Resurrection Project.
The tree lighting ceremony also helped kicked off 18 Days on 18th Street, a local holiday shopping campaign intended to promote the local business community while providing great discounts and deals to the neighborhood residents. The holiday shopping campaign, now in its second year, precedes the 18 days before Christmas and features unique deals at various participating shops.
This holiday campaign was created by Greater Pilsen Economic Development Association (GPEDA), a business association that supports local businesses in the Pilsen community in the hopes of getting the residents of Pilsen to shop local.
“We all look for quality and affordable gifts during this time of the year,” says Natalia Rodriguez, Economic Development Programs Coordinator for GPEDA. “We want the local business to be the doorway to savings.”
A different approach was taken for the inaugural holiday shopping campaign: to help promote the local business community, raffle prizes were offered. Patrons who shopped at participating businesses were immediately entered into a raffle for various gift baskets filled with gift certificates and prizes worth more than $250.
The first 18 Days campaign in 2012 was a success, which is why a second campaign was planned for this year. The challenge for GPEDA was incorporating their ever-growing list of business members to participate in this year’s campaign. The solution was to create “18 Days of Savings” where each participating business owner would choose the days in which the deals and discounts would be offered to shoppers. More than 40 businesses are participating in this year’s campaign and discounts include savings on apparel and food. The point of this campaign is for each business to decide what savings they want to offer.
To help promote 18 Days on 18th Street, GPEDA is helping coordinate three community events which began with the Tree Lighting Ceremony on December 6^th, continues with a trolley tour of the local participating businesses on December 13th, and concludes with a Traditional Posada which includes caroling at selected businesses on December 20th.
For more information on this campaign, visit www.greaterpilsen.org.

To see more photos from the event, visit our Facebook page.

Return to Nueva Vida December 2013 here.