It's beginning to look a lot like the Christmas shopping season in Salt Lake City.

Downtown parking meters are covered in green bags and wrapped with gold bows, allowing holiday shoppers to park for free on city streets for up to two hours.

Mayor Ralph Becker joined Salt Lake City Councilman Soren Simonsen and local business leaders Wednesday outside Squatters Pub Brewery, 147 W. 300 South, to celebrate the start of the holiday season and encourage Utahns to visit downtown.

"From ice skating at the Gallivan Center to the myriad of holiday shows and concerts and the magnificent lights displayed throughout downtown, this truly is a magical time to enjoy the city — not to mention the free parking," Becker said.

The City Council voted unanimously in October to continue the holiday tradition of free metered parking during the holiday shopping season. The city began the practice in 2003.

By offering the free parking, the city will be missing out on an estimated $150,000 in potential revenue — $100,000 in coins paid into the city's 2,100-plus parking meters and $50,000 in fines for parking-meter violations.

In June, the council toyed with the idea of doing away with free parking during the holidays, as well as on evenings and weekends, as a way to boost revenues and help balance a challenging 2008-09 fiscal-year budget.

A flood of negative feedback from local business owners and those who frequent downtown quickly changed council members' minds.

"It really does make a big difference to the businesses located downtown," said Jason Mathis, executive director of the Downtown Alliance.

City leaders and business owners are hoping that construction work doesn't deter shoppers from visiting downtown. The former downtown ZCMI Center and Crossroads Plaza shopping hub has been torn down in preparation for City Creek Center, an estimated $1.5 billion retail, residential and office development set to open in 2012.

The Gateway is open, Simonsen noted, as are many local businesses that line Main and surrounding streets.

"You may discover many local businesses and places to eat," he said.

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