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Battle of the Illuminations 2025
Nov. 6th, 2025 12:52 pmSo, it's November, which means it's time for the kick-off of this year's annual Battle of the Downtown Illuminations.
This used to be pretty straightforward, you know. A few blocks of Main St. had beautiful clouds of lights in the trees, and these would be turned on as soon as DST kicked in, that being the start of Michigan's "we need some light in here" season, which hits a measly 6 hours of daylight in midwinter. They stayed on all night, so they heartened morning commuters, too. They'd stay on through February and then be turned off in March, when things started to melt and we all had the olfactory cue that yes, the ice will retreat.
And then Ann Arbor, in their infinite and sometimes performatively crunchy wisdom, passed a city ordinance to reduce light pollution. Street lights should be pointed downwards, and exterior lighting should be turned off between midnight and 6am. Oh, and also holiday lights could only be on for 90 consecutive days.
For the most part, this did absolute bupkiss for light pollution, because the UofM campus is exempt, and the stadium alone casts light fog for a good mile or two. But it did immediately kick off the Battle of the Downtown Illuminations. Try to take away the most joy-giving light display in the city, will you? We'll just see about that.
First, Main St. storefronts put up much more elaborate window lights. Which was indoor lighting, not exterior displays!
Then they started stringing lights over the sidewalk, under cover of outdoor seating. Not holiday displays, this is _obviously_ functional lighting.
Then the tree lights started expanding. 90 days, sure, fine, in that case let's really get our lumens in! Up Liberty they went, and then up Washington. Across State and several more blocks down either end of Main.
This year, in a crowning moment of Midwest passive-aggression and rules lawyering, not only are there lighted garlands on the lamp posts as of November 1st, but (get this) HALF of the street tree lights are on. I strongly suspect that, when December arrives, it will be both halves, and then when February arrives, it will be the OTHER half. So none of the trees will be lit for more than 90 days!
Where there's a will, there's a way.
So I am taking up my regular weekly dinners downtown, to take in the winter lights and delight in the spiteful ingenuity of Main St.
This used to be pretty straightforward, you know. A few blocks of Main St. had beautiful clouds of lights in the trees, and these would be turned on as soon as DST kicked in, that being the start of Michigan's "we need some light in here" season, which hits a measly 6 hours of daylight in midwinter. They stayed on all night, so they heartened morning commuters, too. They'd stay on through February and then be turned off in March, when things started to melt and we all had the olfactory cue that yes, the ice will retreat.
And then Ann Arbor, in their infinite and sometimes performatively crunchy wisdom, passed a city ordinance to reduce light pollution. Street lights should be pointed downwards, and exterior lighting should be turned off between midnight and 6am. Oh, and also holiday lights could only be on for 90 consecutive days.
For the most part, this did absolute bupkiss for light pollution, because the UofM campus is exempt, and the stadium alone casts light fog for a good mile or two. But it did immediately kick off the Battle of the Downtown Illuminations. Try to take away the most joy-giving light display in the city, will you? We'll just see about that.
First, Main St. storefronts put up much more elaborate window lights. Which was indoor lighting, not exterior displays!
Then they started stringing lights over the sidewalk, under cover of outdoor seating. Not holiday displays, this is _obviously_ functional lighting.
Then the tree lights started expanding. 90 days, sure, fine, in that case let's really get our lumens in! Up Liberty they went, and then up Washington. Across State and several more blocks down either end of Main.
This year, in a crowning moment of Midwest passive-aggression and rules lawyering, not only are there lighted garlands on the lamp posts as of November 1st, but (get this) HALF of the street tree lights are on. I strongly suspect that, when December arrives, it will be both halves, and then when February arrives, it will be the OTHER half. So none of the trees will be lit for more than 90 days!
Where there's a will, there's a way.
So I am taking up my regular weekly dinners downtown, to take in the winter lights and delight in the spiteful ingenuity of Main St.
