Featuring Melinda Doolittle from "American Idol" and R&B sensation Brian McKnight

The City of Boston's Official Tree Lighting hosted by Mayor Thomas M. Menino, the Boston Parks and Recreation Department, title sponsor Nova Scotia Come to life, and media sponsors WCVB-TV Channel 5 and MAGIC 106.7 FM comes to Boston Common on Thursday, December 3, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. This will be the 68th annual Tree Lighting on Boston Common.

The holiday decorations throughout Boston Common and the Public Garden, including the city's official Christmas tree, a 46-foot white spruce donated by Mr. and Mrs. Floyd Shatford of Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia, and selected by Ross Pentz of the Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources, will light up in sequence when Mayor Menino throws the switch with Santa Claus. Joining Mayor Menino will be Deputy Premier of Nova Scotia the Honourable Frank Corbett and members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

WCVB's Mary Richardson and Anthony Everett will host Channel 5's live broadcast of the event beginning at 7 p.m. The celebration will feature "American Idol" Season 6 third-place finalist Melinda Doolittle, R&B singing sensation Brian McKnight, Scottish singer-songwriter Maureen McMullan, the Boston Arts Academy Dance Troupe, the Huntington Theatre Company, the Masquerade cabaret troupe, and MAGIC 106.7's Nancy Quill and Mike Addams.

Refreshments and fun giveaways will be provided by in-kind sponsors H.P. Hood LLC, Cabot Creamery, Nantucket Nectars and Snapple beverages, Dunkin' Donuts, Jazz Apples, Jergens, and 20th Century Fox's "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakuel" in theaters on December 23.

The Holiday Tree Lighting is made possible through the generosity of the Egan Family in memory of Ambassador Richard J. Egan with additional support provided by the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority, Suffolk University, and Emerson College. The annual holiday display includes the official City of Boston Christmas tree and 40 trees throughout Boston Common with ten additional trees around the skating rink sponsored by the Frog Pond Foundation.

This marks the eighth year that Nova Scotia joins with the City of Boston to present the Christmas tree on Boston Common. It is also the 38th year that Nova Scotia has given a tree to the people of Boston as thanks for relief efforts following the December 6, 1917, explosion of a munitions ship in Halifax Harbor. Within 24 hours of the disaster a train loaded with supplies and emergency personnel was making its way from Boston to Nova Scotia. 2009 marks the 92nd Anniversary of the Halifax Explosion.

Immediately following the Boston Common tree lighting, Mayor Menino will join Back Bay residents at Arlington Street for the lighting of Commonwealth Avenue Mall. Two-hundred trees along the Mall will be illuminated through April 1 with elegant white lights sponsored for the sixth year through community support and private donations raised by the Committee to Light Commonwealth Avenue Mall.

For more information please call (617) 635-4505.