“Ho! Ho! Ho!”

Carol Lynn Mizell barks the words into the frigid night air before diving with gusto into the chorus of “Jingle Bells.” She waves a baton, up and down, in stiff jabs at the crowd assembled before her on the downtown Square, as the Denton Community Band toots and whistles behind her.

Some in the crowd — a sea of faces peering out from beneath headbands and winter caps — sing along. Others stand silently, waiting for the big moment.

Moments before, Al Camp kicked off the 20th annual Denton Holiday Lighting Festival with a greeting to the assembly, which organizers expected to grow to 10,000 before the night’s end when Denton’s own Grammy-winning polka band Brave Combo took the stage.

“What a great evening to begin the Christmas season,” said Camp, the chairman of the event.

Now, one woman, leading a parade of three small children in puffy coats toward the sausage stand, isn’t so sure. “It’s a little colder than I thought it was gonna be,” she murmurs.

By 5:45 p.m., the crowd is swelling around the main festival stage. They bellow along with Denton County Judge Mary Horn as she recites “’Twas the Night Before Christmas” and laugh when Mayor Pro Tem Pete Kamp opines about the wonder of the event: “Where else in the world can you do the chicken dance to Brave Combo?”

Then, finally, Santa ascends the stage. Ten! Nine! Eight! ...

The crowd counts down. Three! Two! One!

“Light the tree!”

A towering Eastern red cedar tree just east of the stage explodes with color, and the crowd cheers. Moments later, white lights come alive on the pecans and elms surrounding the Courthouse on the Square, evoking gasps and applause. “What a lovely sight,” Mizell says.

For many Denton residents, the festival represents the true start to the Christmas season. Started as a modest gathering in 1988, the event has matured into a holiday ritual, drawing ever-larger crowds to the Square for music, children’s crafts, horse-drawn carriage rides and pictures with Santa. The all-volunteer, nonprofit Denton Holiday Festival Association works all year to stage the event on the Thursday after Thanksgiving.

When Beth Glover was a kid, she would run from shop to shop around the Square during the festival, tasting samples of cider. After years away from Denton, Glover returned this year to her hometown and brought her two daughters, ages 3 and 1, to the festival she so enjoyed. “That was always a great memory,” she says, waiting in line with her daughters to see Santa, “and I wanted to share that with my girls.”

Just after 8 p.m., Brave Combo climbs a stage on the northwest corner of the Square, where another crowd has assembled.

“Merry Christmas everybody!” screams Carl Finch, the band’s founder and lead singer. “Are you ready to dance?”

“Yeaaaah!”

And they do, if for no other reason than to retain body heat. Three young girls join hands and spin in a circle. Some people hop in place; others tap their feet and clap. Soon, a conga line is worming its way through the crowd.

At the Rotary Club food stand across the Square, the hot chocolate is almost gone. The temperature has been plummeting — it’s 37 degrees now — and the drink has sold fast. Behind the counter, Brian Glenn offers to pour the last drops, but he can’t offer any marshmallows.

“We were out of marshmallows hours ago,” he says.

LOWELL BROWN can be reached at 940-566-6882. His e-mail address is lmbrown@dentonrc.com.