Mayor Tom's Pretty Stoked About This Year's Fair Park Holiday And Says You Should Be Too

Saturday's the big day for this year's Fair Park Holiday, and Mayor Tom Leppert joined assorted Friends of Fair Park this afternoon in unveiling some of the highlights you can expect this time 'round -- among them, rooftop fireworks, the tree lighting ceremony, free admission to all eight of Fair Park's museums. "Of course," Leppert added, "Santa will be here."

The rarely seen-in-action Esplanade Fountain, which debuted its Bellagio-style jets this time last year and whose disuse displeases Mike Rawlings, will be putting on its cascading water show all day, at the top of each hour. This year, the fountain's been programmed to squirt its festive jets in time to new holiday favorites: "Joy to the World" and "Stars and Stripes Forever." (If you wonder what that last one's got to do with Christmas, you might just check your Bible one more time.)

White Rock Marathon chairman Phil Baker was also on hand, to elaborate on tie-ins between Sunday's race and the holiday festivities -- among them, the marathon's health and fitness expo, which'll run all day during Saturday's free event. The marathon's 20,000-plus runners will leave from Fair Park (for the first time ever) on Sunday morning, but on Saturday the park will host the 5K Mayor's Race, Baker said, with ex-mayor Laura Miller already signed up to run. Baker said they're still trying to line up approval for skydivers to drop into the park Saturday morning.

Jump for a couple more photos, plus video of the Esplanade Fountain in action.