Temperatures fell through the 20s as darkness arrived Saturday, but that only seemed to bring families and friends gathered at Springfield’s Holiday in the City 2012 closer together.

April Brown had watched the fireworks from her College Avenue home in past years and brought son Isaac Herrod, 11, and daughter Kylie Brown, 4, for a closer look.

Kylie “particularly enjoyed the Santa at the Heritage Center,” her mother said.

In the basement of the Bushnell Building, Missy Blacker encouraged daughter Elliona and niece Allison, both 2, to make thumb print ornaments.

A group of six family members “just got done watching the Ohio State game,” the result of which helped boost holiday spirits, “and we’re looking for things to do indoors, Mrs. Blacker said. “My cousin’s never been down here, and we’ve missed the fireworks.”

Down the block on Main Street, cousins Michael and Robert Shielke, 5 and 6, had taken up spots on a stone window ledge where they were sure not to miss them.

Their grandmother, Teresa Schielke, and great-grandmother, Pat Justice, said 10 family members planned to meet up with the help of a cell phone to enjoy their second Holiday in the City.

On the Esplanade, Louren Ramey was creating family memories of her own.

She had bundled her year-old son Akim for the weather, and asked Madde and Molly Heiser, 10 and 13, to pose with him.

The sisters had volunteered to dress like an elf and Frosty the Snowman, and were happy to help someone else get into a holiday spirit.

Nelson and Carol Stabler, Dick and Joan Hall and Jim and Pat Bard had migrated to the sidewalk on Fountain Avenue.

Friends in their 70s who live in Northridge and attend First Christian Church, they had memories of an older downtown dancing in their heads: 25-cent apple dumplings with vanilla sauce at the F.F. Woolworth store; stiff competition in the dime store business from S.S. Kresge and McCrory’s; and dime movies at the Hippodrome Princess and Fairbanks theaters.

Not far away, Ansley Horton, 7, recorded the last few thundering moments of the fireworks show on an iPhone.

Her father, Eddie, sister, Logan, 9, and brother, Kyler, 17, were in attendance. But her mother, Marsha, had to work Saturday night.

With the help of technology, Ansley made sure her mother wouldn’t be left out of a special Springfield family event.

Major sponsors of Holiday in the City were Springfield Regional Medical Center and the Turner Foundation.