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Hundreds of children had a chance to ride down a snow slide and have a mini snowball-fight at the River of Lights holiday event near the San Antonio River Lock and Dam.
On Saturday, the park near Brooklyn Ave. and St. Mary’s Street was transformed into Christmas-land with 100,000 pounds of real snow, photos with Santa, theatrical performances, food trucks and a petting zoo.
River of Lights is a free event hosted by the San Antonio River Authority. Christmas lights decorated the trees, and live festive music was heard throughout the park.
Armando Delgado and his wife brought their three grandchildren to the River of Lights. The children, ages 5, 8, and 9, wrote their letters to Santa with the support of their grandparents.
“There’s just so much to do so they’re just enjoying themselves. [We’re] trying to do all sorts of little activities with them, but it’s really nice enjoying the park,” Delgado said about their first time attending the event.
Rebecca Balderrama and her family of five arrived at the River of Lights early to ensure they would find parking and would have time to take part in as many activities as possible.
“We hit up the food trucks, we went down the snow slide, we took our pictures with Santa and then we did the petting zoo,” Balderrama said.
The Magik Theatre performed a play of "Little Red Riding Hood" at the River Stage for families to enjoy while on the other side of the park, The Sideman Syndicate played on the Holiday Stage in front of attendees taking a food break.
Asia and Tim Major of Galveston were headed to the Alamo City when they heard about the River of Lights event over the radio. They made a pit stop for their son Otto to enjoy the snow before continuing their evening.
“I’m just sad this is the first time I’ve heard of it because we were actually on our way here and we heard about it on the radio, so I was like ‘let’s stop here first,'” Major said.
As lights shimmered on the river and children crowded around the Grinch, families continued making memories of a rare snowy night in San Antonio until the festive evening came to a close.
