A large crowd of students, their families and area residents were on hand at Batavia Township Community Center on Tuesday, Dec. 1, to take part in the annual tree lighting ceremony.

The Batavia Middle School Choir, under the direction of Emily Smith, entertained the crowd with a number of Christmas songs and invited the audience to sing along.

Batavia Township board president, Archie Wilson, asked the children to help decorate the tree with hand made ornaments provided by students at Willowville, Batavia, Clermont Northeastern, Summerside and Amelia elementary schools. Many of the children brought hand made ornaments with them to help fill the branches of the 14 foot tree.