The 29th-annual Lights of Love will light up the night next week , bringing the community together to kick off the Christmas season.

The tree lighting ceremony is set for Dec. 2 at 6 p.m. at Vidant Beaufort Hospital. The community is invited to attend the event, which will take place in front of the hospital at 628 E. 12^th St. in Washington. From there, festivities will move indoors, according to a Vidant press release.

John Cotton Tayloe School Chorus and St. John Church of Christ men’s choir will provide musical entertainment during the celebration, and children can meet Santa Claus while he poses for pictures with them free of charge and makes mental notes of their Christmas wishes, the release said.

One component of the event, the annual children’s art contest, will feature artwork from Beaufort County students from Kindergarten through fifth grade. Prizes are awarded for first, second and third place from each grade, and one entry will be chosen as “Best in Show,” and will be featured on next year’s annual Christmas card, said Jean Ferguson, a long-time volunteer at Vidant Beaufort Hospital.

“The kids come and we have the artwork up and down the halls that all the schools send to us every year,” Ferguson said. “That is a great big part of it because it gets all the schools involved and the parents come to the ceremony and see the art. It started out very small with only a few schools participating, but it has grown and all the schools in the county are involved now. The Christmas card we put out this year is last year’s winner.”

Through contributions from community members, over $30,000 has been raised for Lights of Love in the past five years, the release said. The donations come in the form of memorials and honorariums in recognition of family and friends. During that time, the hospital has also received over $36,000 from the Lights of Love endowment fund, established in 2008 with the North Carolina Community Foundation. The fund’s purpose is to support the hospital for specific services, programs or projects that aren’t budgeted for through the hospital, the release said.

“These light represent those that have given during the year in memory or in honor of someone,” Ferguson said. “We do not put a light on the tree for everyone, but the lights do represent someone.”

Established in 1986 as a way for members of the community to celebrate or remember a loved one during the holiday season, Lights of Love, today, is a year-round project that allows generations of people and families to give back to Vidant Beaufort while commemorating an array of traditional and creative events. Donations to LOL are used to fund projects that promote healthcare education, improve community wellness, support and enhance patient care and provide amenities that make the hospital more comfortable for patients and visitors.

“It’s just a long-standing tradition,” said Pam Shadle, manager of marketing, public relations and development at Vidant Beaufort. “It kind of kicks off the holiday season in our community. I’ve always felt like that, myself. When the tree is lit, you feel like the holidays are upon us.”