On recent evenings, Penny Sweet felt something was missing when she drove through downtown Kirkland.

She didn’t quite get that special Christmas feeling she once did when the sparkle of the downtown holiday lights lured her for an eggnog latte.

“There’s a special magic that’s not quite there this year,” Sweet wrote in a post on Kirkland Weblog, urging residents to bring Christmas lights by her store, The Grape Choice.

The sponsor who has helped hang Christmas lights downtown in previous years, wasn’t able to provide the lights this year. So Sweet rallied the community and on Dec. 13, 30 volunteers gathered at The Grape Choice to restore Christmas to downtown Kirkland.

Volunteers spent the morning wrapping lights around tree trunks and along the downtown streets, as well as the front of Heritage Hall.

Sweet said that Santa Claus came in the guise of Jim Hutchinson from Puget Sound Energy, who donated six cases of energy-efficient lights, as well as others who dropped donations off at her store.

“Take that, Mr. Grinch!” Sweet said after the work was complete. “I would wager your heart melted, because mine sure did.”