Thousands of people lined the downtown core for Light Up Okotoks last Friday as the Town put their stamp on the Christmas season.

Mark Doherty, the Town's community events coordinator, says they saw a record amount of patrons taking in the event.

"Light Up just continues to get bigger and bigger every year and this year was no exception," he says. "We estimated the crowd was anywhere from 17,000 to 20,000 people... it's just one of those great community events."

Doherty says even with all those in attendance throughout the night, the support from the Town and local businesses goes a long way into making Light Up a hit every year.

"Not only from our local citizens that come out year after year to visit and bear the cold but just our corporate community, the businesses downtown go the extra mile with their fire pits and free hot chocolate and coffee, our corporate sponsorship allows us to put this event on."

Light Up Okotoks is also the unofficial opening of local Christmas shopping in the community and Doherty says he knows that businesses will be busy with less than 30 days to go until Christmas.

"One thing we do notice when we hear testimonials from our local merchants is the exposure," he says. "Patrons will see something that they want and they'll come back after the fact and I think that's what its all about is just that the word's out to shop locally, and we've got some great stores downtown and it just creates that exposure to them."

Next up for community events in Okotoks will be their Skate with Santa event along with the Kids' New Year's Eve party.

Doherty says the Town is already planning on adding a couple of summer events to next year's line-up.

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