SUMTER, S.C. — People gathered in front of the Sumter County Courthouse earlier this evening for the annual Christmas tree lighting. Six different local schools had their choirs performing leading up to the lighting.
“I like the tree lighting up,” fifth-grader Abbygale Norton said, smiling.
“It was good,” 8-year-old Benjamin Ballard added. “It was fast.”
Ballard tells me his favorite part of the ceremony was watching his classmates perform.
“It was good,” Ballard said. “I liked the singing.”
“It was really good, and I was really happy to see my sister perform,” Sydney Morris said about her sister Zoey.
Elementary and middle school students performed different Christmas songs. While some were nervous, like Makayla Crowder
“I had butterflies in my stomach,” Crowder said.
Ikeria Winn says she had fun singing for the crowd.
“I think it was very good, and I want to do it again,” Winn said.
“It's wonderful to see the families come out,” Sumter County Government Communications Coordinator Joe Perry said. “You see a lot of parents with the phones, taking videos of their kids singing and they're dancing. This is just a great event.”
Perry says having this tree on the lawn outside the courthouse makes it a sight to visit.
“There's so much going on in downtown Sumter, and, you know, just makes me proud to be a Sumter resident,” he said.
This nearly 30-foot tree has been planted in the ground outside of the courthouse and will be there to stay year-round.
Perry says it came from a nursery in Newberry and will grow to between 50 and 60 feet tall. Perry tells me another tree from the same nursery has been planted at Shaw Air Force Base near the chapel.