before we begin tonight's tree lighting ceremony. i want to point out the lights are all in red in honor of world aids day. nobody in this neighborhood or community hasn't been touched by the aids pandemic. please join me in our moment of silence as we honor world aids day today. thank you. my name is daniel, i have the honor of representing the over 280 merchants that make-up the castro merchants association. our territory is from the castro to octavia boulevard. i want to give my thanks to the 90 merchants and community groups for their support and you will see their names on the banner at the bank of america. in addition to this tree, there are gold and silver ribbons on market street and the lighted trees along market. i would like to see a show of hands for the board members of the castro district. [ applause ] thank you. tonight's mc is the first lady of castro street, donna . thank you, donna. >> i thought you were going to sing a song. where are the children. c'mon in here. we have room for you. it's a nice vigil. this is the tallest right here. thank you all for being here. i love our new castro, do you? >> [ cheers and applause ] >> i love the lights, i love the palm trees. picture this, it's quite a contrast and the lights by the crosswalks and there is so many things that happened and we have smooth roads. i love the castro. if you love the castro make some noise. [ cheers and applause ] if you shop and eat in the castro make some noise. [ cheers and applause ] make sure you eat where they are and shop where they are. we have the lesbian and gay chorus and we have the freedom band. make some noise. [ cheers and applause ] . it can't be all of them. but they all have things coming up. they have the sing along dance and the lesbian and gay chorus, you have done your concert, right? >> they are doing part of it now. we are going to light our tree and we have a lot of wonderful people. do you have a song? something light and gay. we wish you a merry christmas. everybody sing along. ♪ we wish you a merry christmas! good tidings to you wherever you are. good tidings for christmas and a happy new year!♪ >> very good. and there are more children here. it's great. it's wonderful. which one of you are the three wise men? >> you look pretty wise. the city of san francisco doesn't have a lot of kids. but we love kids. lots of singing and lots of joy. we have very other people here, we have from mark leno's office, anna and we have district eight supervisor, he's the one that got us here. let's hear it for scott wiener and in case anybody acts up, and our chief of police will be here shortly. he has a little incident going on. no he doesn't. let's hear it for him. and the most our mayor, ed lee. and where is santa? he's coming. we can't light the tree without santa. he's bringing a couple of -- elves. this is the most against -- generous community, this gay and lesbian and bisexual community. give yourselves a hand. every year this happens and monday and wednesday, my 22nd year raising in this emergency fund. if you have been touched by them, you know what that organization does. as soon as this tree is lit, i have to dash to my performance. here is sleigh bells. the course is never through. on christmas eve they will be there for three concerts. it's the 25th big year they are doing this. i will be there with lisa broman. she's one of our guest stars. i think we are doing a duet. she better not wear the same dress i'm wearing. i hear sirens. is that santa? >> oh, my god! has everyone been good. there is no hiding from santa. i don't believe it. i didn't believe the christmas miracle. here is santa. [ cheers and applause ] santa is here. let's wave to santa. there he comes. thank you for being here. he changed his hat. i like your new hat, santa. he's really here. santa is here. will you get her letter because she wants a lot of things. he's been very good this year. let's hear it for santa claus. [ cheers and applause ] happy holidays. these kids bring all the kids out of us. happy holidays! everybody. now to light our tree. >> on the count of 10. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. happy holidays! [ cheers and applause ] >> you are good. thank you so much for being here. let's have a great holiday and spend your money in the castro. i will give it back to our host today. thanks for being here. thank you. [ cheers a

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