From me: Live Art, Live music, encourage more church and school activities etc... It would be nice if the city would compile a list of the local landscaping or similar businesses that provide light hanging for the poeple who can't do it themselves - and advertise that so people know that it's there.

I've read the requests that downtown shop owners maintain extended open hours during Wonderland - a great suggestion, but please remember this means more expense for the owner - extra personnel, utilities, etc. A store must turn a profit, or at least break even, to stay in business. If there are no buyers during the evening hours,then the store owner has lost money, having only provided a rest room for the evening wanderer. Perhaps there could be some perks for the downtown stores, to encourage the longer hours. Honey attracts more flies than vinegar!

I think the timing is just about right now - it's a Marshall tradition to turn on the lights on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, but I think that Friday night would be even better. I rarely get to attend on Wednesday night because I'm cooking for Thanksgiving. Waiting until the Christmas parade is too long. Although some downtown shops have been closed right after Christmas in the past, I believe that most were open this past season. True, the traffic is way down, but I think all the stores and restaurants would profit from being available.

Concentrating on lighting up the square and downtown areas is most important, especially making sure the courthouse is well lit. Neighborhood lighting is important, too - perhaps a competiton for best in a neighborhood, and then desirable prizes could be given to the winners in various categories, as is done with the Downtown Windows of Wonderland Competition.

I've seen some excellent suggestions for improving Wonderland, and I believe Wonderland 2008 will be the best ever!

2. Get the lights OUT of the neighborhoods and focus on downtown "Washington Square" as DD called it. 3. A good retailer KNOWS that if you sell candy to put all the candy together. If you sell towels, put all the towels together. If you sell wine, SELL WINE. Do the same thing with the lights. MASS lighting is much more impressive than scattered around lighting. Great "themeage" on side streets this year. Add to that and keep it going. I sure did miss my longhorn on the courthouse : ( 4. Make sure the lights actually work for more than one hour. Replace the bulbs. 5. Make folks get out of the car and walk. They will stay LONGER resulting in MORE SALES revenue for VENDORS and RETAILERS = MORE SALES TAX DOLLARS for next year. 6. GET MORE VENDORS that provide INTERACTIVE sites. Ice rink looked WONDERful this year. Add to that: carnival theme, something! Carousel, petting zoo, scheduled singers from the schools, churches, local bands. GET ER DONE!

In order to accomplish this, the first two blocks of North Washington Ave. should be closed the traffic. The first block should be dedicated to vendor spaces. The second block should be an entertainment venue.

Instead of the people on the street build a set of attractive and locked donation boxes. Distribute these to key locations like the Weisman Center. Use the money saved from eliminating the wages of the money collectors to build these donation boxes.

Having said that, we need to then get all the downtown to do something. We're talking from the bus station to the Visual Art Center. We have to make this really lit up and get everyone involved in it.

#1 Get a calendar and every night from 6pm -8:30 pm have wandering Christmas carolers throughout the downtown. One night you can get Ebeneezer Methodist (and Roosevelt Washington) and one night you can get the crew at Central Baptist (who I hear has a great choir). I am sure the music teachers at Carver or MHS would want to put some kids on for display.

#2 Speakers. One think I notice when I go to the Louisiana Boardwalk is that the same song is playing everywhere I go. We need to get the downtown outfitted with weatherproof speakers throughout and have them wired to one central location. This would also allow us to put out reminders "Don't forget the Bethesda Choir will be on the corner of Austin and North Washington in 15 minutes to sing Christmas carols".