Honolulu City Lights has become the premier holiday celebration in Honolulu. The spectacle is marking its 25th anniversary.

That's a lot of lights, a forest of trees, a bounty of visual and aural pleasures — from the Board of Water Supply's array of lighted displays on its front lawn to the twinkling oasis that is Downtown's Tamarind Park.

Twenty-five years from now, folks will be recalling their annual trek to see the parade, the lighted trees, the displays inside city hall, the thoroughfares decked out in holiday finery. And Black Fridays, the mass crowds, the packed parking lots. Yes, the stress, too.

How you observe Christmas now defines what memories you'll savor in the future.

I have some recollections of Christmases past, from gentler, simpler times, when Honolulu was without malls, when budgets were smaller, when big box merchants weren't yet prevalent.

Do you remember ...

• The animated window displays at the old Downtown Liberty House? As kids, my sister and I used to wait for the chance to press nose and cheek on the window panes, to get as close as possible to the animated holiday enchantment.

• The places you'd shop for clothes? Liberty House, McInerny's, Hub's, Hartfield's — labels and emporiums no longer in business.

• The big Christmas show, staged on a tier above door level, at the original Sears building on Beretania Street? Sears was also a key shopping spot, not just for clothing, but toys, electronics, tools. And it had the first escalators, which were cool to experience when nowhere else had 'em.

• Honolulu Rapid Transit and the painted Christmas bus? I remember bypassing the usual buses to wait for the yuletide edition to ride from Liliha, where I grew up, to go shopping Downtown.

• The five-and-dime stores that are no more? Like Kress, Woolworth's, National Dollar? You could find $1 gifts for your friends; $5 if you were loaded.

• The Downtown overhead lights and garlands, along King Street and Fort Street (which was still a street, not a pedestrian mall)? This was the mecca for shopping in pre-mall days. Ala Moana Center, Pearlridge Center, Windward Mall and Ward Centers were not yet built. But Kaimukí was a shopping destination too — boasting a National Dollar Store and a McInerny's, if I recall correctly.

• Kaimukí's overhead street decorations? The "suburb" used to get the "old" decorations from downtown. I especially remember those huge lighted red bells that dominated the fake green garlands which were hand-me-down staples from Downtown.

• The annual red poinsettia displays at the Board of Water Supply reservoir on Pali Highway? Used to be a wonderful natural patch of holiday finery to soak in, to and from the Windward side, the red poinsettia contrasting with the vivid greenery of Nuuanu.

• The rush to pick up and collect candy, which Santa and his elves tossed from community holiday parades? Nowadays, it's unsafe to throw sweets; if they're available, they're handed out by walkers in the parade, since it's deemed dangerous to throw candy that kids used to race and rush for.

• The candy of choice for gifts? Blum's (those delightful Almondettes) from McInerny's and Frango Mints (in those round tubs, not boxes like now) from Liberty House. Yums. Also, back in the '50s and '60s, a tin of Almond Roca was a welcome gift, too. (No Godiva's or See's here.)

If you have a favorite Christmas remembrance, share it with me.