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City Creek Center kicked off the holiday season Thursday with a visit from Santa.

Mall owners have been working for more than a year to create holiday decorations around a lantern theme for the center's first Christmas season, said Linda Wardell, general manager.

Near the center's food court, Santa sat in a 30-foot-tall lantern that weighs almost 2,000 pounds. Four storybook-themed lanterns, which contain dioramas featuring classic holiday stories such as A Christmas Carol, The Nutcracker, The Night Before Christmas and The Twelve Days of Christmas, have been placed throughout the center.

A decorated tree stands at Richards Court, and the center's fountains are choreographed to "Let It Snow," "Carol of the Bells" and the theme from "The Nutcracker," with shows starting hourly.

Macy's has brought back the traditional "candy windows" made popular by the old ZCMI department store. The decorated windows were unveiled Thursday.

The Gateway also is offering new holiday decorations. A 50-foot spruce surrounded by smaller trees was placed Thursday around the Olympic Legacy Plaza fountain, which was decorated with more than 600,000 lights that were choreographed to the music, said marketing director Rochelle Fraser. The water shows will be performed nightly.