Tree lighting tradition continues tonight without Mayor Menino

(Evan Richman/Globe Staff/file 2008)

Fireworks flanked the Boston Common Christmas tree after Mayor Thomas M. Menino threw the switch in December 2008. Menino's wife, Angela, will take his place this evening.

By Globe Staff

The city's official Christmas tree -- a 46-foot white spruce from Nova Scotia -- will be illuminated this evening on Boston Common during a celebration replete with song, dance, holiday decorations, and fireworks.

Mayor Thomas M. Menino

The annual festival, however, will be missing one familiar face: Mayor Thomas M. Menino will not be on hand to throw the switch on the tree's lights with Santa Claus. Menino remains at home in Hyde Park with his left leg immobilized in a brace as he recovers from a knee injury he suffered Nov. 8. His wife, Angela, will take the mayor's place tonight on Boston Common for the tree lighting, which has long been a staple of the mayor's calendar and among his favorite aspects of the job.

The festivities run from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. and include entertainment from R&B singing Brian McKnight; "American Idol" Season 6 third place finalist Melinda Doolittle; the Boston Arts Academy Dance Troupe: the Masquerade cabaret troupe; and Magic 106.7’s Nancy Quill and Mike Addams.

The 46-foot white spruce was a gift to the city from Mr. and Mrs. Floyd Shatford of Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia. The province donates a tree to Boston every Christmas as thanks for the doctors and supplies the city sent after an explosion killed almost 2,000 in Halifax in 1917. To see photographs of when the tree was cut down and ceremonies in Nova Scotia, click here.