The city of Santa Fe and the Historic Neighborhood Association are preparing for up to 30,000 participants in tonight's Christmas Eve Farolito Walk.

Neighbors and crowds of visitors are expected to stroll Canyon Road, Acequia Madre and other east-side streets to see the annual displays of paper bags lit with votive candles and warm themselves by bonfires of pitch wood.

Motor vehicle traffic will be strictly limited in the area. All shoppers and other nonresident vehicular traffic must leave the Canyon Road area by 5 p.m.

Canyon Road, East Alameda Street, Acequia Madre and all other roads in the area will be closed to automobiles at 5:30 p.m.

City buses will be the only vehicles allowed on Paseo de Peralta between East Alameda Street and Old Santa Fe Trail.

These buses can be boarded at the Santa Fe Place mall or at the South Capitol Station, between Cordova Road and St. Francis Drive, beginning at 5:30 p.m. Passengers will be dropped off at the PERA Building parking lot. The last bus departs from PERA at 11 p.m.

All buses citywide will be free tonight after 5 p.m.