It’s holiday time, and calendars are filled with special activities, parties, and events that distract from everyday routines at work and at home. For US Armed Forces serving in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other hot spots around the world, however, watching a movie for an hour or two is often the only distraction they have, for weeks at a time. To help provide this welcome distraction, Charter Communications is working with Newtown resident Donna Randle (US Army-Retired) in a campaign to raise morale among US troops by collecting and distributing DVDs and CDs. The time soldiers spend waiting to be deployed, or resting from a deployment can be a lonely, dull, and stressful time. By sending DVDs and CDs overseas, the troops are simultaneously entertained and reminded that the folks back home care enough to send a symbol of what we all Americans enjoy: freedom to enjoy a little distraction from our own daily duties. The communications company is hoping to collect 2,000 discs, almost double the amount collected in 2010. The campaign, which ends on January 31, has already seen an outpouring of generosity. DVD and CD donations can be of any kind, in a case or no case, new or used, and can be dropped off at Charter’s customer service center, located at 9 Commerce Road in Newtown. Donors may also get in touch with the staff at CTV-21 by calling 203-304-4050, to arrange a drop-off or request a pickup.

Very exciting news this week for Eclipse. The Newtown-based band members — Nell Malyszka, Matt Wilkie, Trish Keil, and Andy Lafreniere — learned recently that their album It’s Christmas Now will be the Album of the Week for Celtic Music Radio, based in Glasgow, Scotland, for the (slightly extended) week of December 17–25. The radio station may be a little difficult to listen to in Newtown, but its website (CelticMusicRadio.net) can be accessed anywhere. Each week the station features an album both by highlighting it in print, and the station features it in heavy rotation during the week. It’s Christmas Now was released by the band last year, and offers original and traditional songs with strong vocal harmonies. Selections from the album will certainly be featured this weekend when the foursome returns to Newtown Meeting House for the 7th Annual Eclipse & Friends Christmas concerts. Performances are scheduled for Friday and Saturday, December 16 and 17, at 7:30 each night. Tickets are $20, and reservations are strongly suggested; call 203-426-3939. This year’s performances will benefit Kevin’s Community Center.

I’ve got some very exciting news from Shakespeare’s Garden, located in Brookfield, just over the Newtown line on Obtuse Road. The garden center was selected this year to create two gigantic wreaths for Tiffany’s, on Fifth Avenue, in New York City. Steve Fancher, who along with brother Mark owns Shakespeare’s, tells me that the two live wreaths are now hanging above the entrances to the iconic jewelry store in the city. “We constructed two wreaths, nine feet in diameter,” Steve says. The wreaths are 20 inches thick and two feet wide, and weigh 800 pounds each. I know you thought it was the pounding of little elf hammers you heard in the big pole barn at the business, but Steve says it was just him and staff working late into several nights to get the wreaths finished by deadline. The staff used greens including Frasier fir, boxwood, and cedar to fill out the enormous wire frames, then added five hundred LED lights per wreath, and finished them off with different colored and different sized ball ornaments — on both sides. “We like a challenge,” Steve says, and it’s a good thing, because they also had to transport the finished wreaths to a Long Island warehouse, 110 miles away, without damaging them. “So we wrapped them in burlap to keep all the decorations in place and prevent the greens from drying out. We constructed framework in our truck to securely hold these wreaths upright,” he says. Then, I guess they prayed a lot, because all’s well that ends well. The Connecticut wreaths were hoisted in to place by the Spectrum company of Long Island, and are there for all to enjoy. I’m going to make a point of ogling them in person (or catson?) in the very near future, and I plan to give Shakespeare’s Garden a shout out when I do so.  Who wouldn’t?

The Bee heard from a relative of David Delia this week, who wanted to let us know that the Newtown resident continues to battle brain cancer, five months after receiving his diagnosis. Barbara Delia, David’s mother, dropped us a note to tell us that a golf tournament was recently held at Redding Country Club to benefit her son. “There was tremendous support from the community,” Mrs Delia said. “There were 100 golfers and 30 additional people came out for the banquet dinner. Participants came from New Jersey, New York, New Hampshire and Maine, as well as Connecticut.” Through entry fees and raffle prizes, the tournament was a very good success. Not only that, but one anonymous donor has matched what was made at the tournament. Dave’s brother, Dan, has set up a tax-deductible 501(c)(3) account for David through St Vincent’s Hospital. Anyone who would like information on making a donation is invited to send Dan a note at DanoDelia@gmail.com. A private donor, according to Barbara Delia, has just come forward with a promise to match up to $5,000 in donations through that fund. Dave and Karen Delia live in town with their five children. Dave, according to his mom, is undergoing treatment for his cancer (glioblastoma multiforme, or GBM, which is the most common and most malignant form of brain cancer) and continues to work. “We are humbled and thankful for all of the support,” she said. We wish David and his family well, this holiday season and New Year, and every day thereafter.

The secret is out, thanks to a December 11 article in the Sunday New York Times “Living In” section: Newtown and Sandy Hook are awesome towns in which to live. The article featured “What You’ll Find,” “What You’ll Pay,” “What To Do,” “The Schools,” “The Commute,” and “The History” of our town. If I didn’t already live here, I’d sure want to after reading this. Now everyone knows what residents have always known: all of the reasons why we love our town.

Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights, begins at sundown next Tuesday, so I hope your menorahs are in place and you have candles to last the eight days of celebration. I noticed that the Brookfield Craft Center on Route 25 has some particularly intriguing, handcrafted menorahs this winter, made by regional craftspeople, if you are looking for a really special Hanukkah gift.

Spread the light, because the first day of Hanukkah is followed by the first day of winter on December 22, also the shortest day of the year.

I’m afraid to wish for a dusting of snow for the holidays, because last winter’s (and this fall’s!) snowfalls were a little over the top. Still, I can dream. I won’t be dreaming good dreams, though, unless I know that next week you plan to… Read me again.