It’s the holiday season, flock!

This is my absolute favorite time of year, and the season is starting off amazingly with the kickoff to Jingle Falls.

In case you missed off the classic reboot last year, Jingle Falls is a spiritual successor to the old Festival of Lights: the largest holiday celebration in North America.

This year’s Jingle Falls started with a bang…literally. After the candlelight stroll from City Hall to Old Falls Street (and a confirmed Walter C. Falls sighting), Santa was on hand with Mayor Dyster and the winners of a school district-wide contest to light the Christmas Tree. To everyone’s amazement, rockets shot out from behind the tree, dazzling sparklers lit up the area, and a fantastic fireworks display dazzled over the Culinary Institute.

The fireworks spectacular already had me remembering how awesome Niagara Falls is at peak performance, and then they sent in a fire-eater.

Please do not try this at home (unless you want to be your own steak)

Inside the Culinary Institute, the first ever Festival of Slice Pizza Celebration was being held. Everyone knows that Niagara Falls has the best pizza, so naturally this was a perfect event. The gingerbread house competition was also on display, which featured a Small World themed entry that made my one friend have flashbacks to his days working at Disney.

You can hear the music, can’t you?

Jingle Falls continues on December 1, 8 & 15 with some amazing events. A full calendar can be found at jinglefallsusa.com. And yes: there is outdoor ice skating this year.