There is no doubt that Santa is an impressive figure. He knows when you are sleeping. He knows when you’re awake. He knows if you’ve been bad or good.

But for all his talents, he just can’t seem to make his post-Thanksgiving appearance in Lawrence without getting stuck on a roof.

Evan Hunter, 15, plays the trumpet to help announce Santa's arrival Friday night at Weaver's Department Store, 901 Mass. Downtown stores turned on their Christmas lights Friday night and Santa heard Lawrence children's Christmas wishes.

For more than 20 years, Lawrence has ushered in the holiday season with the rescue of a stranded Santa from the roof of Weaver’s Department Store, 901 Mass.

Mild weather brought a larger-than-usual crowd to the corner of Ninth and Massachusetts Street for the annual event Friday, which featured a slightly different look than in the recent past.

At 6 p.m., long strings of Christmas lights began to blink on to outline the buildings, not the trees, of Massachusetts Street. Maria Martin, director of Downtown Lawrence Inc., the organization that puts the event together each year, said the lights had been moved to the buildings because of safety concerns about the electrical conduits used to power the tree lights. The new lights for the buildings cost a total of $25,000. Downtown Lawrence Inc.’s member businesses financed the project.

There appeared to be a few kinks in the new system, as several of the strings of lights were out of sync with the others.

Ella Williams, 1 1/2 years old, of Lawrence, sits on Santa's lap.

But any glitch was forgotten when Santa Claus’ silhouette appeared against the clear fall sky atop the department store.

While no one knows exactly how Santa finds his way from the North Pole to the top of Weaver’s each year, Martin speculated that some form of magic was involved.

Regardless, Santa clearly was relieved to see a fire ladder heading to his rescue.

“Oh thank goodness,” Santa said to the crowd. “It’s the fire department!”

Four-year-old Aidan Manthey admitted he was a bit nervous when he saw Santa stranded on the building, but had faith that Santa would be rescued.

“I remembered what happened last year,” he said.

Lindsey Mitchell, 12, left, along with her mother, Jeri Mitchell, and sister Haley, 5, all from Pratt, watch as Santa arrives at Weaver's Department Store, 901 Mass.

After being escorted down the fire ladder to the street, Santa held forth in front of US Bank, 900 Mass., listening to the Christmas wishes of Lawrence’s youngsters.

After enduring a wait in line to hop on Santa’s lap, 8-year-old Kate Albrecht was generous enough to donate some of her face time with the jolly old elf to the needs of her father, Ken.

“I told him that my daddy needed gravel for the driveway,” Albrecht said.

Does she think he’ll get it?

“I don’t know,” she said. “That’s up to Santa.”

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