Celebration Cutbacks: Tree Lighting at Lincoln Center

As we slide into one of the last, best weekends of summer, Lincoln Center informs us it is "reluctantly cancelling" its a holiday tree lighting ceremony for the Christmas Season -- and wow, it really is too early for us to get upset. The reasons provided: the "challenging economic climate and ongoing construction at the entrance to Josie Robertson Plaza." An alternative: the Lincoln Square BID's Winter's Eve celebration on November 30 Given the great season of Out of Doors that just finished up -- weeks of free music on the plazas of the complex -- I'll take this cancellation easily. Lincoln Center still plans to present free performances every Thursday starting in November when its Atrium -- a new visitor's center in the former Harmony Atrium -- opens.