Christmas in Edgartown is absent the throngs of people this year, but downtown shops are open and the seaside town is decked out for the holiday.

The traditional lighting of the Edgartown Lighthouse took place Friday evening on a windless, starry night, mild for mid-December.

Earlier in the afternoon mid-50s temperatures beckoned small groups of shoppers in downtown Edgartown, where a banner reading “Keep the Cheer Here” hung above Main street and sleigh bells chimed from a horse-drawn carriage making hourly tours of the village.

Face masks and Christmas ornaments shared space on a decorative tree outside Untameable Gallery on Dock street, while nearby a cardboard Santa cutout presided over stacks and bins of free toys for children and cider mulled in a slow cooker next to the Sea Legs boutique.

More people, many of them in family groups, took to the streets as the last of the daylight faded and holiday lights began to glow. While the non-municipal conch trap Christmas tree has yet to go up at Memorial Wharf, the wharf itself was blazing with lights. Costumed as Marie Antoinette in a Scottish mood, singer Corinne de Langavant prepared to lead Christmas caroling on Dock street. The tables outside the Wharf restaurant began to fill up, and the facade of Edgartown Books turned into the projection screen for a light-show snowfall.

By 5:30, a steady column of families and other groups headed up North Water street toward the Harbor View Hotel and the lighthouse.