Slideshow: 75th Annual Tree-Lighting Shines on Boston Common

BOSTON, MA — Boston welcomed the holiday season in a burst of pyrotechnics, a swell of music and a blaze of multicolored lights Thursday on the Boston Common, marking the 75th annual tree-lighting.

Santa, Mayor Marty Walsh and Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil were all on-hand for the annual event, culminating in the lighting of a 47-foot white spruce that towered over Tremont Street. It's the 45th year that Nova Scotia has given a tree to the people of Boston, long-running thanks for relief efforts following the December 6, 1917, explosion of a munitions ship in Halifax Harbor.

Hundreds of families applauded the fireworks display and then sang along to a series of carols as they took in the gargantuan fir. The temperature was unseasonably mild, and the closest the watching crowd came to snow was a shower of white confetti pumped from the stage.

You can watch video from the tree-lighting below:

Photo and video by Alison Bauter, Patch staff