Our Big Holiday Weekend

Only good things come of something that starts with a thousand people singing in candlelight around a spruce tree. At least that’s the rule in Newtown, which annually launches the Christmas holiday season with festivities in the Ram Pasture that seem a little bit pagan, a little bit religious, but mostly community-spirited. In the gathering darkness of these final weeks before the winter solstice, the town tree-lighting is truly an illumination of why most people who have lived here, whether they are natives or not, come to think of Newtown as their hometown for the rest of their lives: There is a sense in this community that we are better together than we ever could be individually.

That certainly is the message that carries through to the other end of this weekend, when the annual Newtown Holiday Festival fills the center of town and Sandy Hook with performances, activities, and events from 11 am to 5 pm on Sunday to benefit Newtown Youth & Family Services. The festival presents a range of cultural experiences from the domestic (a tour of five private homes) to the sublime (a traditional service of Advent Lessons and Carols at Trinity Church). The “everything in between” includes music, dance, gingerbread, tea, and, for the first time this year, an adaptation of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. (For times and locations of these events, see the story at far left.)

This is the 22nd year for this Newtown tradition, but for the first time the Holiday Festival benefits the newly combined missions of two service agencies — the former Newtown Youth Services and The Family Counseling Center. The event this year is an opportunity for the people of Newtown to give the new agency a big boost as it gets on its feet in its new location on Church Hill Road. The youth service bureau and mental health clinic helps individuals and families navigate difficult and challenging times, regardless of their ability to pay. Coordinating volunteer and professional services in a caring and confidential environment, Newtown Youth & Family Services embodies the same community spirit that embraces that spruce tree in the Ram Pasture. It reassures those among us most in need of a caring community that in Newtown no one needs to face their difficulties alone. Together we can make things better.