When Paul Tormey, general manager and regional vice president of the Fairmont Copley Plaza hotel, returned to Boston three years ago, he was soon struck by how the tree lighting ceremony in Copley Square paled in comparison to the annual holiday tradition at New York’s Rockefeller Center.
“The tree lighting was cute, but I was surprised at how modest the ceremony was,” Tormey said. “I was underwhelmed and began talking to friends about how to make this an event that highlights the beauty of the park and its central location in Boston.”
In November of 2008, Tormey extended an invitation for a free lunch to representatives of businesses, churches and other organizations in Copley Square. His true agenda was to enlist their help in making this year’s tree lighting ceremony a memorable occasion. Tormey’s proposal was met with enthusiasm, eventually resulting in a collaboration between an eclectic mix of groups from the neighborhood.
On Dec. 2 of this year, after more than a year of planning, Tormey’s vision was realized with Copley Square’s most impressive tree-lighting ceremony in recent memory. Several area businesses provided food and refreshments, the Salvation Army Brass Ensemble and the Trinity Church Children’s Choir performed, and the Fairmont Copley Plaza held an after-party in its ballroom foyer that drew more than 100 guests. The centerpiece of the ceremony was a 40-blue spruce donated by the Friends of Copley Square and Normandy Real Estate Partners, the Morristown, N.J.-based firm that acquired the John Hancock Tower in March.
“It was a really fun event, and we hope it will continue to grow,” Tormey said.
The evening also kicked off a month of programming around Copley Square sponsored by various neighborhood organizations.
At the Copley Square Branch of the Boston Public Library (BPL), visitors are treated to holiday-themed film screenings and exhibits for children, as well as a visit from Mrs. Claus on Dec. 19 and 20.
“It’s been a very exciting time to be around Copley Square, not just because the buildings are beautifully decorated,” BPL spokesperson Gina Perille said. “There’s also been a renewal of the collaborative spirit between the many organizations that connect people in the neighborhood. We at the library certainly enjoy the energy in and around the Square.”
Old South Church in Boston, meanwhile, is sponsoring a concert series, featuring a wide range of genres, such as chamber music, jazz and Christmas carols.
“The concerts allow people to pause from shopping on Newbury Street and stop in and hear some music,” said Nancy Taylor, the church’s senior minister. “We’re already looking ahead to the next holiday season.”
In celebration of the holiday season, the Prudential Center tower has launched the 31 Nights of Light, a program that uses a new set of LED lights to illuminate the 51st floor of the 52-floor building a different color every night of December. This year, the program promotes 28 local non-profit and philanthropic organizations.
“People look at the Prudential Tower as the Beacon of Boston and an iconic landmark on the city’s skyline,” said Andrea Simpson, director of marketing for The Shops at the Prudential Center. “[The program] gives these partnering organizations significant visibility in the city and beyond.”
Besides the 31 Nights of Light, the Prudential Center will sponsor a holiday toy drive and a charity gift wrap to benefit local non-profits, as well as programming throughout the month. For more information, visit http://www.prudentialcenter.com/experience/events.php.
“There’s always something going on that is free and open to the neighborhoods on both sides of the building,” Simpson said.
Meanwhile, Meg Mainzer-Cohen, president and executive director of the Back Bay Association, which represents the interests of area businesses, believes the holiday season is the ideal time to visit the neighborhood.
“We encourage people to come to the Back Bay to dine, shop, meet friends and family and enjoy the holiday spirit,” she said.
For more information about the ongoing holiday programming in and around Copley Square, visit http://www.visitbostonbackbay.com/site/holidays-at-copley-square/.

A natural shelter in the fields outside Bethlehem. Starlight glowing overhead. Shepherds and wise men. These elements of the traditional Christmas story took on new meaning for international speaker, Chet Manchester, when he visited Israel several years ago. He captured hours of video footage in Bethlehem and in the green hills of Galilee, where Jesus grew up. Now, he and New York-based singer Julia Wade are bringing the Christmas story to life for interfaith audiences across the country through an inspirational talk and concert called “Christmas Presence.” The event combines music, scenes from Israel and spiritual insights as it retraces Jesus’ life and light from past to present.
A member of the Christian Science Board of Lectureship, Manchester recently returned from speaking engagements in Indonesia and The Philippines – where, he says, “There were signs of Christmas everywhere we went. The story of Jesus’ birth is so universal. Yet, it’s about more than the birth of a Jewish babe two thousand years ago. It’s about the dawning of a spiritual light that is here to bring inspiration, joy and healing to us individually and collectively. This is what Christmas Presence celebrates.”
Audiences will enjoy Wade’s fresh arrangements of familiar classics like “Joy to the World.” They’ll also discover new songs, drawn from her album, “Story for the Ages,” released by Watchfire Music (watchfiremusic.com), and a poem set to music entitled “Christmas Morn,” by Mary Baker Eddy, who founded Christian Science a century ago.
The program title, “Christmas Presence,” is a word play that Manchester and Wade say most people can relate to. “It’s so easy to get caught up in the mad rush to the malls – the hunt for Christmas presents – while our hearts yearn for something more. It’s the presence of Christ that is the real gift of Christmas – “God with us.” This is what Jesus’ life illustrated and what’s at the heart of our program.”
“Christmas Presence” will take place on Sunday, Dec. 20, from 1 to 2 p.m. in the 1894 edifice of The First Church of Christ, across from Symphony Hall. Admission is free, and the event will be Web-cast live at christianscience.com. For more information, visit christmaspresence.info.

For the other three candidates running for Senate during last Tuesday's primary, overcoming Attorney General Martha Coakley's statewide name recognition was near impossible except here in Boston. While most political pundits argued that U.S. Congressman Michael Capuano's streetwise Boston politics and grassroots campaigning could match Coakley's popularity, the Attorney General was able to topple Capuano 2 to 1 in votes and easily cruised past Alan Khazei and Stephen Pagliuca for a place in the final election against Republican Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown on Tuesday, January 19
However, Capuano was able to carry Boston, which includes neighborhoods in his Congressional District like Back Bay, Beacon Hill and the North End, but could not pull of what would have become a huge political upset. Even in Boston, Capuano beat Coakley by only three percent.
"I would like to congratulate the next U.S. Senator of Massachusetts, Martha Coakley. She ran a good campaign. I am going to be there to help make her our next Senator, and when she gets elected, we are going to work hard to make sure she is successful," Capuano told supporters at the Copley Fairmont after the election was called for Coakley. "This has been an amazing time for me. Our campaign was about working from the bottom up. So many of you have done this in your own lives. And I thank you for helping us to do so in this campaign. You have all become a part of this family, and I will never forget what you all have done for me."
Statewide, Coakley ran away with 310,827 votes or 47 percent. Capuano was next with 184,791 votes or 28 percent. Alan Khazei came in third with 88,929 votes while Celtics owner Stephen Pagliuca, who spent nearly $10 million on his campaign, finished last with 80,248 votes or 12 percent.
"I am so grateful for your support in this campaign. With focus, grit, hard work, optimism, enthusiasm, commitment, and a sense of humor, you made tonight possible," Coakley told supporters after the election the Sheraton Boston. "I entered this race because I believe that Massachusetts needs a Senator who will work to restore a healthy economy, to reform our health care system, to protect our environment and seek energy solutions, to make our communities and our nation safer, and to protect and defend our civil rights. If we roll up our sleeves and work together, all of these are quite simply, possible. And I know that with your help and support we can defy the impossible and we will be successful in moving this Commonwealth and this country into a brighter future."
On the Republican side, Brown easily defeated Jackie Robinson and captured 89 percent of the vote to Robinson's 11 percent. In neighborhoods like Back Bay, Beacon Hill and the North End, brown was the clear choice among registered Republicans here. In Boston, Brown defeated Robinson 87 percent to 13 percent.
"With tonight's victory, we are halfway there -- and now the real race begins," said Brown after his victory. "In 42 days, the voters of this great commonwealth will have a choice, and tonight that choice became a lot clearer. We can send another partisan placeholder to the United States Senate, or we can try something new: We can elect an independent voice for all of Massachusetts -- and that's the United States Senator I promise to be. They say I’m the long shot, and if the same old powers-that-be get to decide this election, I guess that's right. But I'm betting that a new day is coming in Massachusetts. I am here in the name of every independent-thinking citizen, whether they be Democrat, unenrolled-independent or Republican, to take on one-party rule, and the Beacon Hill bosses, and their machine, and their candidate … and with your help I intend to win."

The ironies of Christmas in Boston

Beacon Hill and Back Bay are among the most affluent and architecturally pleasing and correct neighborhoods in America, let alone in the city of Boston.
It isn’t exactly a secret.
Residents take great pride in living in fabulous settings where nearly everything about life has a more genteel persona steeped in the feelings of a storied ages old past.
In these two neighborhoods live and have lived some of the most successful, highly educated, artistic men and women this society can produce, who live in residential settings that are among the best of their kind anywhere in the United States.
Enough said about the most obvious realities past and present having to do with life on Beacon Hill and in Back Bay.
Falling through the cracks on Beacon Hill and Back Bay, and in other neighborhoods in the city, are those for whom Christmas is just another day to be cold, hungry, sleepless and without a home or hope.
Therein lies the irony – that in two of Boston’s finest neighborhoods which seem immune to natural economic forces, there are dozens – even hundreds of men and women without homes.
Many of them live from day to day in parks or on back doorways or near to some form of heat coming out of buildings – or inside unlocked hallways. By day, they roam about the neighborhoods sucking in the warmth given off by the sun.
At night, they cover themselves with blankets and try to remain unseen.
Tuesday night this week, members of the mayor’s staff for the homeless will take the annual census on the city’s streets of those who live on them.
The mayor himself has led this census taking for the past decade but won’t be able to do so this year because of his recent knee operation which has left him temporarily hobbled.
It is almost incomprehensible that some of the poorest, most destitute and at risk men and women in this city live on the streets among the residents of Beacon Hill and Back Bay – but they do.
This is the irony.
This is the sad part about Christmas coming.
The city will do what it can to relieve the pain and suffering of the poor without homes.
Boston’s homeless are affected by the recession, too, amazingly enough.
The Pine Street Inn is being forced to cut back its services for the homeless because of a nearly $2 million funding shortage.
The city hospital facility on Long Island is also being forced to reduce its programs for the homeless, the sick and the destitute. Again, and to his credit, Mayor Menino is making an effort to identify donors who will make up the shortages in both these important places.
Christmas comes and Christmas goes.
For the city’s homeless- even in its finest neighborhoods – it is just another day of emptiness.