Carlsbad, CA, USA (December 1, 2014) — LEGOLAND California Resort is honored to announce Emmy Award-winning actress Sarah Michelle Gellar as this year’s special guest to light the world’s largest LEGO Christmas tree at the family theme park’s 12th annual Tree Lighting Ceremony this evening at 5:30 p.m. And a special, live performance by Grammy Award-winning musical guest Ben Harper will lead the Park’s spectacular Tree Lighting Ceremony.
Gellar, a mother of two and married to actor Freddie Prinze Jr., recently starred in the TV series, “The Crazy Ones” with Robin Williams and is popularly known for her lead role in “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and as Daphne, in “Scooby-Doo” and “Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed”.
Harper, a father of four, recently starred in the documentary, “A House is a Home”, this November. The documentary gives viewers a glimpse of the making of his acoustic collaborative album, Childhood Home, with his mother, Ellen. Harper is set to hit the stage in March 2015 for his “Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals Tour”.
Created out of more than 245,000 green DUPLO bricks, the 30-foot tall Christmas tree is adorned with 400 LEGO ornaments and will be illuminated with more than 11,000 LED lights while towering over the theme park’s Fun Town winter wonderland.
At the ceremony, LEGOLAND California Resort is donating a total of $20,000. On behalf of Gellar, the Resort is donating $10,000 to Baby Buggy, Inc., a charity which works with a network of more than 100 community-based organizations to distribute new and gently-used essentials such as cribs, baby bottles, cribs and clothing, to families. Furthermore, $10,000 will be donated to the Tony Hawk Foundation, an organization dedicated to providing safe, legal skate parks for youth in low-income communities across the United States, on behalf of Harper, who is a board member of the Foundation.
The tree lighting ceremony is part of LEGOLAND California Resort’s coolest holiday celebration ever, Holiday Snow Days and Winter Nights. The Park has been transformed into a winter wonderland featuring more real snow than ever before with a tubing area for kids to slide down and, new this year, guests are invited to ice skate as an upgrade. Guests can enjoy festive entertainment plus nightly fireworks Dec. 26 through 31 and ring in 2015 with San Diego’s biggest Kids’ New Year’s Eve Party on Dec. 31. All Holiday Snow Days and Winter Nights activities located inside the Park are included with regular Park admission. Tickets for the ice rink, located between the ticket booths and LEGOLAND Hotel, are sold separately.
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