Christmas trees at Cathedral Square decorated by students

Also, Andrew Muzoo joining us earlier on here on Fox 6 Now talking about... Cathedral Square and how it is currently in the process of getting ready to be decorated. There's a ton of trees, a ton of students on their way to lend a helping hand. I want to go ahead and bring in our next guest here, Isabel Ulrich, joining us from Milwaukee's downtown. You guys are really getting ready for Milwaukee's Holiday Lights Festival. Tell us more about this because I am obsessed with holiday lights. This is music to my ears. Well, great. Yeah, thanks for having me. I'm really excited, Chia. Talk about what we're doing for the holidays. We did start today decorating Cathedral Square Park. Over the next couple of days, we'll have over 2,300 school children come and decorate the trees in the park. And then it's all capped off with our kickoff event next Thursday. So we're full steam with the holidays downtown. And again, there's going to be so much to do downtown once we get to this kickoff. Let's kind of walk through some of the sites to see, which I love too, that Cathedral Square Park. It gets renamed for these next couple of weeks to Community Spirit Park. So what can we expect there? Yes, absolutely. So we have, like I said before, the school children are decorating as we speak. We have over 100 trees there with homemade decorations. And we also just have a bunch of photo ops there. We have a brand new kind of lighted bridge there. So you can go underneath that and it's just lit up. It's great for photo ops. And then we also decorate Red Arrow Park. Zeidler Union Square Park, Cathedral Square, and Pierre Marquette Park. So all of those will be lit up by the 19th. And it's actually half a million lights downtown. So it's a lot of holiday lights, a lot of photo opportunities. And then, of course, we'll also have our chandeliers on Wisconsin Avenue. Which are iconic when you are driving down and you get to see them. And I think to me, it's just that happy reminder of we've made it to another holiday season. And I don't know, lights to me just equate to joy. Like I'm never not smiling when I see holiday lights. And I love here that you kind of do take over so many parks because I don't know, it's a little create your own adventure. You could go and do all of them in one night or you could take one night for each one and really get to soak it all up. I do love too that Cathedral Square Park. Offers kind of a magical connection to the North Pole for any kiddos that are maybe wanting to make sure Santa gets their wish list. Is this right? Yes, absolutely. So we have Santa's mailbox opened today. So if you put in your letter, just make sure to put an address and Santa Claus will respond. It's really cool to have a direct connection to the North Pole from downtown Milwaukee. And we also do have the Jingle Bus starting in December, and that it's a 40 minute tour and that will allow you to see all of the park decor, really everything downtown. So it's another great way to see everything from that guided tour bus. Yeah, absolutely. Again, there's just so much to do this time of year. I know you talked about the slice of ice lights that are at Red Arrow Park, but we also just talk about slice of ice. We can lace up some skates and go skating. Yes so I'm not sure when the actual park opens it's kind of weather dependent but typically we see that open in December and Red Arrow Park is just a great way to you know come downtown see the lights and also spend some time on your ice skates. I feel like I'm somebody who loves to go ice skating. I'm always just looking for somebody who's willing to maybe fall with me. But fingers crossed that we're staying upright, not falling. I feel like there's so much to do between all these parks. Is there one thing that really stands out in your mind, Isabella, just like this is my must-do every holiday season? Yeah, well, I really do love just walking through the parks. I think when you're actually in them, you really notice all the details. A lot of the decor we set up has spots where you can like put your face in the decor or sit on a bench and it's surrounded by decor. So I really think, you know. Because the weather is still pretty good, I think you should get out there and actually walk through the parks and experience the decor and interact with it. A lot of the pieces are made for that so I think definitely getting out there and doing that and then also just going to any of our restaurants or cafes, grabbing a specialty cocoa or specialty drink that's I always just love to do that. Yeah, and really, it's tis the season. Of course, it's not easy work to decorate all of these parks, to your point. Half a million lights, this is a lot of work that goes into it. Certainly a labor of love, and we're just a couple days away from getting to enjoy it. And again, we really appreciate you joining us to preview all of the lights that we're about to get to see. Yes, thank you so much for having me. Of course. Again, that is my favorite thing. That's what I voted for in our question of the day, which we'll bring you back to in a little bit here on Fox 6 Now.