Annual

Holiday Festival

Returns On Sunday

By Shannon Hicks

Layne Lescault is starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Or maybe that light is really a bedside lamp that she will reach for when she snuggles in to get some sleep on Sunday night, once the 2007 Holiday Festival has concluded.

After co-chairing the 2006 Holiday Festival last year with Laura Miller Kurtz, Ms Lescault has taken on the heavy duty role of sole chairman of the 2007 Holiday Festival. It is a tremendous task, but one that has been done successfully in the past (most recently in 2005 by Ms Kurtz, as well as in 2002 and 2003 by former Newtown resident Nancy Obremski).

As most of us prepare for and celebrate the holiday season, Ms Lescault has done all that and more, coordinating the myriad committees that will present activities suitable for all ages on Sunday, December 2. The 22nd Annual Newtown Holiday Festival will run from 11 am until 5 pm that day, and will once again welcome the holiday season to town while doubling as one of the largest fundraisers of the year for Newtown Youth & Family Services.

The festival itself is celebrating its 22nd year; the agency that it will benefit is the result of a merger between the former Family Counseling Center and Newtown Youth Services organizations.

Trinity Church will offer its traditional service of Advent Lessons and Carols, and student musicians will offer tours of the church beginning at 1 pm — an hour before the service starts.

“We’d like to bring some focus back to Trinity and its service,” said Ms Lescault. “Trinity, after all, was the founder of Family Counseling Center and Newtown Youth Services, and they still do an awful lot for us. They take an offering during the service that still goes right back to the Holiday Festival.”

There will be walking tours of five private homes, three in Newtown on or near Main Street and the other two on Washington Avenue in Sandy Hook. Photos of those homes and some of their history are on page C-1 of this week’s Bee.

The festival will offer ticket holders entry to a number of events, including many returning favorites:

*The Victorian Tea, which offers festival ticket-holders a place to sit and enjoy live music while enjoying hot tea, mulled cider, and fresh baked breads and scones, will be in the town hall’s Alexandria Room until 4 pm.

A number of student musicians will be providing live music from the stage of the Alexandria Room during the course of the afternoon.

*Dancers from Newtown Centre of Classical Ballet will also be back, offering performances of Nutcracker Suite Ballet at 12:30 and 2 pm in the town hall theater. Tickets for this event is also through a full festival ticket or a separate admission of $5 at the door.

“With these two performances this year it shouldn’t be standing room only, plus it will give more people the opportunity to see the show,” said Ms Lescault. “[NCCB Artistic Director] Jennifer Johnston always does a great job. She’s gone all out once again.”

Following each performance children in the audience will be invited onto the stage to meet the dancers and try their hand (feet?) and some simple dance steps.

*The Festival of Trees will return to Booth Library, offering decorated tabletop trees, wreaths, baskets, holiday decorations and other gift items from 11 am until 4:30 pm. More than 20 businesses and individuals, plus another seven Girl Scout troops and Webelo Den 6 Pack 270 (Middle Gate) have committed to at least one item for this popular event.

Festivalgoers will be invited to purchase raffle tickets and place them into a container that corresponds with the item of their choice. Winners will be announced at 5 and while they do not need to be at the library at 5 in order to win, they will need to be able to return to the library between 5 and 7 on Sunday or 10 am and noon the following day.

And to make things easier for those who want to try to get to all of the Holiday Festival locations, free shuttle bus rides will be available all day. Stops will be at Edmond Town Hall, Newtown Middle School, Newtown Youth & Family Services’ brand-new office at 17 Church Hill Road, outside 46 West Street and 72 Main Street (two of the homes on the historic homes tour), and at 5 Washington Avenue, where St John’s Church will be hosting an Organic Farm Market Holiday Fair and next door to another of the homes on the walking tour.

Two events are not returning this year: the antiques show and the crafts show.

“We’re hoping to have a crafts show in May at Reed School, which will be a standalone fundraiser,” said Ms Lescault. The elimination of the antiques show, which had been presented for years in the town hall gymnasium, frees that space for the family workshops and the gingerbread house contest, bringing together more offerings for the entire family.

“I think there is more to do for the whole family, which is what we’re all about in the first place,” Ms Lescault said.

Ticket prices have been kept around the $20/$25 mark, which still keeps them reasonable for most families. Children’s tickets, said Ms Lescault, are for those age 14 and under and “seniors” are those residents who are as young as 60. Also, children ages 5 and under will be admitted free to Holiday Festival events.

Tickets can be purchased until December 1 at the presale prices — $23 for adults and $18 for seniors and children — at C.H. Booth Library, Drug Center Pharmacy, Newtown Savings Bank (including locations in Newtown, Bethel, Danbury, Monroe, and Southbury), our green house, and the Newtown Youth & Family Services office at 121 Mt Pleasant Road.

On the day of the festival, tickets will increase just a few dollars, to $25 for adults and $20 for seniors and children.

“It’s not a costly event,” Ms Lescault said. “We want as many people as possible to enjoy the day. The festival is about community, and about family, in Newtown.

New For Sunday

This year’s festival will offer two new events.

This first is a gingerbread house contest at Edmond Town Hall. For the past few weeks residents have been busy planning and creating their own constructions with one general rule: the theme for this event is “Images of Newtown.”

There are few other rules, said Laura Miller, who is coordinating this event.

“All houses must be made of edible goods, including the base, which can be cardboard but must be covered in edible goods,” she said this week.

The creations will be exhibited in the town hall’s gymnasium from 11 until 4:30, and the winners will be announced promptly at 5 pm. Builders will be competing for ribbons and the honor of being the first to win this new Holiday Festival competition.

The gym at Edmond Town Hall, where the gingerbread contest will be set up, will also host storytelling, and children’s and family activities from 11 to 3. Santa will be there, too.

“Stephane Colbert will be taking photos with Santa, and NYFS youth group kids will be leading workshops to have other kids decorating frames in the shape of gingerbread houses,” said Ms Lescault. “It’s a nice way to tie that all together.”

The second new event is an adaptation performance of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. The show is being coordinated by Beth Agen and directed by Cristin Carlin, a junior at Newtown High School who was stage manager of the just-completed Importance of Being Earnest. The production features “about 120 of the finest kids I’ve ever had the pleasure to work with,” Ms Agen said last week.

“As we were chatting one day she mentioned her love for working with kids as summer camp and the desire to direct a play,” Ms Agen continued. “I immediately jumped on the idea, as I think it’s really important to empower the kids to do what they enjoy. As we thought about timing and other things going on, we realized the best fit would be to do something in conjunction with the Holiday Festival.

“Because we knew there was a drama production at the high school and also at the middle school, we decided to approach the intermediate school,” she continued. “In May the Prevention Council had also identified the intermediate school as a location where we were not providing enough after-school programming.” The majority of the cast in this production, therefore, are RIS students. RIS fifth grade teacher Gina Swanson has also been participating.

“At tryouts we were hoping for 40 kids and more than 100 showed up,” Ms Agen said. “Because it was Cristin’s wish that anyone wanted to participate would be able to, we adapted the adaptation to utilize all of the interested kids. This production totally reinforced my belief that Newtown is in it for the children. From the NYFS staff and Holiday Festival organizers to the administration and staff at Reed and the parents of the kids, it has been a complete and total joy.”

Admission to A Christmas Carol is free with the purchase of a full festival ticket or can be purchased separately at the door for $2.

Also on Sunday, the brand-new office of Newtown Youth & Family Services, at 17 Church Hill Road, will be open.

“It’s still very much a work in progress,” admitted Ms Lescault, “but everyone is invited to come see our new home. We will be there, and would love to see anyone who wants to come in and see where we will be situated.”

Related Events

*Newtown General Store, which is usually closed on Sundays, will be open the day of the festival. Owner Peter Leone has promised to donate a portion of the day’s sales at the historic store (in business since 1868) to NYFS.

*St John’s Episcopal Church, at 3 Washington Avenue, will host a Christmas Organic Craft Fair from 11 am until 3 pm, including a soup, salad, and sandwiches lunch from noon to 3. The special event will feature some of the vendors, and some new faces, from the popular summer organic event presented at the church.

One basket will be raffled, featuring items from a number of the vendors, with proceeds to benefit NYFS.

*The Friends of the C.H. Booth Library Annual Holiday Book Sale will take place at the library on Sunday from 11 am until 5 pm (yes, starting one hour earlier than the library normally opens on Sundays).

Upscale, gift-quality books, DVDs, and videos will be available for purchase, as well as C.H. Booth book bags, special bookmarks, and even a chess set. Also available for order at the Holiday Book Sale will be the 1854 maps of Newtown, a popular item at last year’s holiday sale. The 2-by-3-foot reprints on archival quality, acid-free paper in sepia tones show the map surrounded by drawings of local historical homes and buildings of interest.

Proceeds from the Holiday Book Sale benefit C.H. Booth Library. For more information about the Friends’ Holiday Book Sale, call the library at 426-4533.

*Newtown Historical Society will present its Holiday Open House from noon to 4 at its headquarters, the Matthew Curtiss House, 44 Main Street.

Admission is free. The historical society’s headquarters, decorated for the holidays, will be open for visits and tours by costumed docents, light refreshments available. Call 426-5937 for additional information.

*As mentioned earlier, Trinity Church will present its annual Service of Advent Lessons and Carols beginning at 2 pm Sunday.

*While not officially part of the Holiday Festival, Hawley School will be hosting a vendors fair on Sunday as well. That event will be presented by the school’s PTA in the Hawley School gymnasium from 11 am until 2 pm. There will be 18 vendors, “which will certainly fill the gym,” said Ms Lescault.

 *Newtown Choral Society will perform its holiday winter concert at 4 pm at St John’s Episcopal Church.

Admission to the concert, which will include Pinkham’s Christmas Cantata (accompanied by NHS Brass Quintet), Mozart’s Gloria in Excelsis and gospel songs of the season, is $9 for adults and $7 for seniors and ages 12 and under. Tickets will be available at the door.

While this is not included in the Holiday Festival ticket, partial proceeds of the concert have been promised to Newtown Youth & Family Services. For additional information about this event call 426-3769.

For additional Holiday Festival information call NYFS at 426-4874.