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Singers from the Mountain View High School Madrigals perform at the city’s tree-lighting ceremony on Monday, Dec. 9. The musical youths in Renaissance garb were stationed next to the North Pole sign and the switch that turns on the lights bedecking the tree at Civic Center Plaza, where the annual celebration is held.

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CalMatters is a Sacramento-based nonpartisan, nonprofit journalism venture committed to explaining how California's state Capitol works and why it matters. It works with more than 130 media partners throughout the state that have long, deep relationships with their local audiences, including Embarcadero Media.

Andrea Gemmet is the editor of the Mountain View Voice, 2017's winner of Online General Excellence at CNPA's Better Newspapers Contest and winner of General Excellence in 2016 and 2018 at CNPA's renamed...