Annual Regions Center Holiday Lighting Returns Downtown

BIRMINGHAM, AL — Friday night, a Birmingham holiday tradition continues as the Regions Center downtown will light up with its traditional holiday theme — a signal to the city of the arrival of the holiday season.

Although no formal lighting ceremony will take place, the lights will be on display beginning at 4:45 p.m. Friday. Each year, red, green and white lights installed above the windows surrounding the 30-story tower are illuminated in the forms of Christmas trees, a massive wreath and a giant stocking.

The lights come on just before sunset each evening beginning the day after Thanksgiving, and the nightly illumination continues until Jan. 1.

"The lighting of the Regions Center is a tradition going back more than 40 years, and Regions Bank is proud to keep the tradition alive, especially during a year in which so much has changed," said Joe Holcombe, senior facilities project manager in Regions’ Corporate Real Estate division. "In recent weeks, crews have been installing and testing lights, working hard to get Birmingham’s tallest holiday display ready for the season. As the lights come on this evening, we wish everyone a happy holiday season and a brighter new year to come."

The Regions Center lights are visible across the city, from vistas along Red Mountain, to nearby Interstate highways, to planes landing at the Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport. While there have been some upgrades to the lights themselves over the years, the way the displays are created is much the same as it was when the tradition began in the 1970s.

Crews equipped with diagrams of the Christmas trees, the stocking and the wreath work their way through the tower over the course of several days and nights each fall. They install gel "sleeves" over lights that are in each window from the fifth floor to the top of the building. Together, those sleeves create the colors needed to illuminate each side of the building.

Testing takes place during the early-morning hours in the days before Thanksgiving to ensure each light is working properly. Then, the lights are set to automatically come on around sunset each evening beginning the day after Thanksgiving.