For 2010, Light-Up Night will run longer than it has in the past. By a day, in fact.

The Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership announced this morning that this year's 50th anniversary of Light-Up Night will span two days, Friday, Nov. 19, and Saturday, Nov. 20.

Festivities Friday will include traditional events like the unveiling of the Macy's windows, the opening of the PPG ice skating rink, the dedication of the Christmas creche at U.S. Steel Tower plaza, and, of course, a fireworks finale.

Day two will feature two new partnership-sponsored activities -- a candlelit horse-drawn carriage parade through Downtown featuring 40 carriages and 250 horses and the arrival of Santa Claus from the North Pole.

Mike Edwards, the PDP president and CEO, acknowledged that the "Celebrate Santa" event is the PDP's version of the privately-sponsored Santa Spectacular that traditionally has been held Friday evening.

Mr. Edwards said the goal of the two-day event is to bring people Downtown for an extended period to shop and dine and perhaps stay overnight at a hotel.

According to the partnership, the first Light-Up Night Downtown was held in 1960, sponsored by the Golden Triangle Association, a forerunner to the PDP.

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