Show CHRISTMAS SEASON FORMALLY OPENED by I ARGE LK CROWD visitors join with townspeople saturday to welcome santa richfield its christmas season with an an appropriate holiday spirit on saturday evening when crowds that had gathered during the afternoon witnessed the turning on of the colored lights as a signal that santa claus was in town the feature of the evening was a program at the community christmas tree where the old boy himself led the children in singing and to whom he distributed some bags of candy prior to his arrival a gay parade had started on main street and which somehow managed to pick him up along the way splendid preparations had been made by the city officials and business men for the event and hundreds of people from surrounding towns accepted the invitation to join with richfield in starting off the holiday season the city had many strings of colored lights stretched across the street through the entire business section giving it an appearance that is bringing congratulations from many who have had the opportunity of comparing the display with those of other cities the lights it is announced noun ced will be left in place until after new year business houses cooperated fully with the committee in arranging special window displays and in decorating their buildings three strangers who were stopping at the johnston hotel were selected to act as judges of the most attractive displays in the general division the telluride power company and Menden halls tied for first place the prize being awarded to the latter when the power company withdrew its entry the th e home cafe was awarded the prize in the grocery and restaurant division though only two prizes were awarded many other windows were well up in the prize class and made the judges task a difficult diff cult one lending much to the the balance of the season are the the balance odthe season are the exterior der decorations orations of such buildings as the johnston hotel and the telluride building the event was considered a success in every respect and merchants report that as one of the results christmas shopping has started earlier than in previous years |