City will light up for parade

Service vehicles will be decorated for the Dec. 1 event, which will close some roads

» Holidays will create a glow all over Oahu

Strings of colored lights will transform city service vehicles into holiday magic for the Dec. 1 Public Workers Electric Light Parade.

The 6 p.m. parade along King Street will end in front of Honolulu Hale for the kickoff of the Honolulu City Lights display. Several high school bands will march in the parade, which is sponsored by Hawaiian Electric Co., Macy's, Friends of Honolulu City Lights and the city.

The beautified work trucks and emergency vehicles will be parked for public viewing in front of the City Hall grounds until 8:15 p.m.

Traffic in downtown Honolulu will be affected by street closures and detours.

» King Street between Punchbowl and Alapai streets will be closed from 5 to 9 p.m.

» Punchbowl Street will be closed between Beretania and King streets at 4:30 p.m.

» Alakea Street will be closed at Queen Street at 5:30 p.m., with only intermittent mauka-bound flow allowed.

» Traffic will be stopped or detoured on streets intersecting King Street along the route during the parade.

» Eastbound bus routes that pass through downtown Honolulu will be detoured at 4:30 p.m. onto Liliha Street and Vineyard Boulevard to Nuuanu Avenue and Hotel Street, and Bishop Street routes will also be detoured after 5 p.m. Call 848-5555 or see www.thebus.org for information.

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Holidays will create a glow all over Oahu

In addition to the annual Honolulu City Lights Tree Lighting Ceremony, Oahu residents will have two other chances to celebrate Christmas with the city.

For the next three Saturdays, the city will be holding City Lights celebrations in Kaneohe, Honolulu and Kapolei.

"This is our way of taking the Christmas celebrations out into the community," Mayor Mufi Hannemann said.

To kick off the Christmas events, the city is hosting the Windward City Lights tree lighting ceremony starting at 6 p.m. tomorrow at the stage fronting the Kaneohe Police Station at 45-270 Waikalua Road.

The tree will be set up again in front of the Fire Department Kaneohe Station at 45-910 Kamehameha Highway.

The annual Honolulu City Lights celebration at Honolulu Hale, which typically draws thousands of spectators, starts at 4 p.m. Dec. 1 with the lighting of the official city tree at 6 p.m. and the electric parade to follow. There will be a Toys for Tots donation site at the celebration for people to give a new, gift-wrapped toy.

Wrapping up the events beginning at 5 p.m. Dec. 8 will be the Kapolei City Lights celebration. At 6 p.m., Hannemann and members of the University of Hawaii-Manoa football team will lead an electric light parade down Farrington Highway to Kapolei Hale, where they will light the tree at 7:30 p.m.