On the Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend way back in 1994, a couple of thousand or so folks decided to head to downtown Nashua to check out this new thing they’d heard about that had something to do with walking down Main Street with candles, visiting stores and restaurants and a couple of food trucks, then gathering around the Hunt Building to wait for someone to flip a switch to illuminate the city’s Christmas tree.

My, how things have changed.

Those humble but quite successful beginnings — birthed and nurtured into maturity by one Alan S. Manoian, at the time a recently hired downtown development specialist — would spawn an annual tradition that grew year after year in both attractions and attendance.

These days, organizers, sponsors, volunteers, vendors and business owners are puttin

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