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���ϰٿ� kicks off the Christmas season with the 13th annual Christmas Tree Lighting on Kerrwood Lawn on Tuesday, Dec. 9, at 5 p.m. Following caroling and the annual Pickle Address, a mystery tree lighter will throw down the massive switch that lights a 150-foot redwood tree, affectionately known as the Pickle Tree. The event is free and open to the public.

Hundreds of students, alumni, and neighbors will join the celebration, enjoying warm apple cider and cookies. Santa Claus will be inside Kerrwood Hall posing for pictures with people who bring a canned good or unwrapped toy to donate to The Unity Shoppe, a local volunteer program that helps the less fortunate in Santa Barbara. ���ϰٿ� alumni and their children are invited to arrive at 4 p.m. for Santa photos.

A student band, the Ahh-Men Acapella Club, will perform and lead participants in traditional Christmas carols.

Marianne Robins, professor of history, will deliver the humorous Pickle Address. Robins, a native of France, has taught at ���ϰٿ� since 1996. She earned a master’s degree and doctorate at the University of Paris 1, La Sorbonne. She has written two books in French, “Christians and Dance in Modern France,” and “Words of the Gospels: Four German pamphlets of the 1520s.”

For more information, please call (805) 565-6056 or email alumni@westmont.edu.