The lighting of the Edgartown Lighthouse Friday evening launched a weekend of activities sponsored by the Edgartown Board of Trade. Horse-drawn carriage rides through downtown streets and sleighrides to Cape Pogue turn back the clock on Christmas.

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Along the streets of Edgartown, garlands twist up the lamp posts, lights string along shrubs and wreaths hang on the stores’ front doors.
For 31 years the town has celebrated Christmas with a Main street parade, and come Saturday morning, the sleigh bells will be ringing and the children singing as Santa makes his way down the street, with 45 other floats following behind.

But these days the event is much more than just a wave from Santa’s sleigh.

A friend recently said that "Christmas is about getting back to the basics, the basics that are so easily forgotten today."

A reporter was reminded of this walking through the doors of the Federated Church on South Summer street Saturday morning, where an elf workshop was in progress. Oblong tables were crammed with kids bumping elbows and building gingerbread houses. Parents stood behind them chatting with each other. Some leaned over to lend a hand, but they were ignored - so intently focused were the kids on their individual projects.

With six shopping days left until Christmas, Tisbury merchants say the women will come early, the men late. Parking will be tough, but when isn't it? And though the wind may be cold the shops are warm, and the white lights of a Main street night alone make it worth the walk.

Vineyard Haven store owners are hoping this weekend will bring a rush to boost holiday business. December is usually one of the more profitable months of the year, but so far sales have been lackluster.

Downtown Edgartown began looking a bit like Christmas weeks ago when wreathlike green loops appeared on the white picket fences at Hob Knob Inn and Tomassian & Tomassian law offices. Soon after, Santa began standing sentry in faux Doc Martens by Edgartown Hardware and evergreen spriggery sprouted in Soigne’s windows.

You really need a plan if you’re venturing out this weekend. More than a plan — a strategy. And sustenance — no, on second thought you can just work stops for free snacks into your strategy. But sneakers might be a good idea, for sprinting between events during this, the annual Christmas in Edgartown weekend extravaganza.

Or maybe just forget all that and take a sanguine, Santa’s-coming-to-town approach to walking around the whaling captain’s village for the whole weekend.

Wearing their sashes proudly and standing with their wagons full of cookies, a group of Girl Scouts were waiting with anticipation last Saturday in Edgartown for a Santa sighting.

They watched as dogs in festive wear walked by in the annual Christmas in Edgartown parade, the Vineyard Assembly of God caroled through the streets in Dickensian costumes, and miniature ponies with sleigh bells trotted across town.

And then, he turned the corner.

Like the famous snowman with a corncob pipe and a button nose, Edgartown will come to life this weekend for the 30th annual Christmas in Edgartown celebration, a weekend of events that would put even the North Pole to shame.