The yuletide season doesn’t really begin in Central New York until the Christmas tree lighting ceremony takes place at downtown’s Clinton Square, as throngs of frigid onlookers gathered for the annual post-Turkey Day festivities on Nov. 23. Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh got his first chance to flip the switch, and this year he was accompanied by movie actor Ian Petrella, who portrayed annoying kid brother Randy in the 1983 holiday classic A Christmas Story. A visit by Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus, musicmakers making merry and displays of ice skating rounded out the evening.
