Newtown kicked off its holiday season on Saturday, December 3, with a variety of specialty sales and events for all ages.

The Garden Club of Newtown had its Annual Holiday Greens Sale at Newtown Meeting House, from 9 am to noon.

The one-day-only fundraiser sold lush arrangements, wreaths, swags, boxwood trees, and tabletop centerpieces. The historic building was filled with fresh green items displayed on top of the altar steps, wreaths hanging from the pews and gracing the windows.

The club, which has more than 50 members, spent two days together crafting the items. Their goal was to use as many natural materials as possible with just a few manufactured accents on pieces, like festive bows.

New to the sale were the wooden stars, made by a member's husband, and kissing balls, which are evergreen creations used in a manner similar to mistletoe, and can be hung in doorways.

"Everything is handmade from everyone in the Garden Club," said Holly Kocet, Newtown Garden Club member since 2008.

This year, Ms Kocet created items for the birds to help them find food through the colder months. She had the idea to make handcrafted bird feeders from tree bark. The feeder is designed with a hole filled with suet. Once the birds have eaten all the suet, more can be repacked inside.

Feathered friends were not the only ones who could enjoy a treat at the Greens Sale. The Garden Club also sold jars of homemade jams. The containers were nestled in a bed of greens inside miniature sleighs.

"One of our members made all the jams," said Ms Kocet. "She made raspberry and apricot."

"Also, new this year," Ms Kocet continued "we have an offshoot of our club with our conservation effort, Protect Our Pollinators, so we have artwork from children on notecards and some pins."

The Greens Sale special guest was Newtown resident and garden author Sydney Eddison. Attendees got the opportunity to meet Ms Eddison and purchase her two newest books of poems, Where We Walk, published in 2015, and Fragments of Time, which came out this year. Both works are about her love of landscapes in Connecticut. For those who missed her appearance on Saturday, her books are sold locally at Queen Street Gifts & Treats, as well as at amazon.com.

The proceeds from the Newtown Garden Club's Greens Sale will be going to a number of local organizations, including Newtown Forest Association, Newtown Scholarship Fund, Bent of the River Audubon Center in Southbury, the Newtown Historical Society, and a Newtown food pantry.

Breakfast With Santa

Another event in town benefiting a local food pantry this joyful season was Newtown Park & Recreation's Breakfast with Santa at Newtown Middle School, from 9 to 11 am.

The event allowed residents to pay their goodwill forward by enjoying a breakfast spread of bagels, doughnuts, milk, juice, coffee, tea, and hot chocolate, while helping to feed a family in need.

In addition to Parks & Recreation, Bagel Delight, Starbucks, Maplewood at Newtown, Dunkin' Donuts, and Masonicare of Newtown also donated to the event.

Santa invited children and their families to not only meet the jolly man himself, but to also take photos with him. Sandra Lynn of Sandra Lynn Photography used her professional skills to capture the precious moments of children meeting their holiday hero.

Fun craft tables were set up for children to make miniature Santa Clauses, and Joy Hoffman from The Joy of Art volunteered her services to help children decorate gingerbread figures.

"We are building a community of goodwill," Ms Hoffman said about the gingerbread creations and their creators. "You can never have too much art in your life. This is the most gratifying experience that I've had. Art heals a community."

At 10 am, Breakfast with Santa had its annual Holiday Show featuring Mike Elwell, better known as Mathematical Mike, from the company Mad Science out of Stratford.

He performed different winter-themed science experiments for the group of children watching his show.

Mr Elwell explained, "A lot of the experiments involve ice and snow, and some fun ways that - as a mad scientist - I can help Santa out."

He told the crowd that his first creation was an experimental recipe that his wizard friend gave to him. For it, he needed special snow ingredients: water, tinsel, and glitter. He added them one by one into a metal pan then infused them together by lighting the pan's contents on fire. The children were mesmerized as he put a lid over the flame then reopened it to reveal a stuffed animal of Olaf from Disney's Frozen.

For his second snow experiment, he chose two volunteers from the crowd to be his safety experts to help him make magical warm snow that never melts. Throughout the skit he taught the crowd scientific terms and how they apply to his experiment.

Mr Elwell even developed a third way to make snow in what he calls his "special snow of the day."

To make a snow storm inside, he brought out his high tech tool called the "Experimental Science Vortex Generator," which is better known as a hair dryer, as well as a funnel and bucket full of soft packing peanuts.

First, he made a small flurry of snow with a sprinkling of packing peanuts blowing in the air. Then he turned his snow experiment into a raging blizzard with the packing peanuts gusting all over the place. The children squealed with delight and scurried to collect them and return the pieces back to him.

Rotary Pancake Breakfast

Santa also had an additional helping of breakfast when he attended the 56th Annual Newtown Rotary Club Pancake Breakfast, in Edmond Town Hall's Alexandria Room, from 8 am to 1 pm.

Tickets for adults were $7 and tickets for children, 10 and under, were just $3. The ticket allowed guests to enjoy unlimited pancakes and sausages freshly made by Rotary Club members. Apple sauce and a variety of beverages including coffee, juice, tea, and hot chocolate were available, as well.

Rotary Club member and chairman of the Pancake Breakfast, Pat Caruso, said they use a "secret pancake mix" that makes them taste so good, and that they would be serving about 500 people during the event.

Members who know the special recipe include Dr Bob Grossman, who has been making the pancakes for all 56 years of the event. On Saturday, Dr Grossman got the grill fired up at 6 am and was eager to start cooking.

Later on in the morning, Brits John Brown and Tony Strange took over the cooking duties. Mr Caruso called them the "mix-masters," as Mr Strange has been participating making the pancakes and sausages for 15 years and Mr Brown for three years. Both men also joked, stating to have been trained by professional celebrity chefs, but could not provide any credentials to prove the claims.

After the pancakes and sausages were prepared, they were distributed to guests through a picture-perfect pickup window that the Rotary had previously raised money to rebuild.

Newtown Middle School's Interact Club, which is a community service group, is an affiliate of the Rotary Club and looks forward to lending their services to the Pancake Breakfast.

Teacher advisor Jason Zetoff said the students volunteered to take shifts throughout the day's event by busing tables and helping to serve patrons.

Community members also helped with the day's entertainment. The Newtown Centre of Classical Ballet & Voice performed songs and dances early in the morning.

Also, the Lathrop School of Dance did three performances for the crowd at the Pancake Breakfast under the instruction of Tamra Saric, director of the dance teams. The Junior Dance Team did a routine with the Penguins of Madagascar theme and the Senior Dance Team dressed as elves for a number. Then for the last performance, both dance teams and the Experience Group came together for the first time to dance to what Miss Saric calls their "Hot Chocolate" routine.

Between all of the song and dance performances by local groups in town, Rotary member Ken Harper played piano on stage throughout the day.

Mr Caruso said his favorite part of the Newtown Rotary Club's annual Pancake Breakfast is to see the "excitement of the kids and the smiles on their face. It is a great community event. We all love it."

Holiday Book Sale

Also on Saturday, The Friends of C.H. Booth Library had its Annual Holiday Book Sale, in the library's meeting room, from 9:30 am to 5 pm. The sale continued on Sunday, December 4, from 11 am to 5 pm.

The sale was a smaller version of their summer book sale, located at the Reed Intermediate School, but what set it apart was that it also had holiday-specific items. Both sales attract people from all over Connecticut, many whom come early before doors open to secure a place in line and be one of the first to pick from the selection of items for sale.

New and gently used merchandise including books in a variety of categories, ornaments, adult coloring books, CDs, DVDs, games, puzzles, Looney Toons glass photo frame set, a dragon nightlight, and more was available for shoppers at discount prices.

The Friends of C.H. Booth Library official T-shirts with the Stephen King quote "Books are a uniquely portable magic" were also for sale for $15.

All proceeds from the sale go toward helping the library with programming and other activities.

Toni Earnshaw, director of advertising and publicity for the Friends of the C. H. Booth Library, said, "We save the cream of the crop for this sale. We have something for every age. We have everything you could want for Christmas gifts."

Joanne Zang has helped organize the holiday book sale since it first started. Her job is to reach out to local businesses for their support, many of which supply gift cards and gift baskets with themed items.

"We get generous donations from various merchants in town," said Ms Earnshaw.

Donors from this year's event were Big Y, Butcher's Best, Dere Street, Down on Main Street, Hollandia, Nails & Beyond, Newtown Hardware, The Toy Tree, UK Gourmet, and Your Healthy Pet.

"What doesn't sell down here will go upstairs to the Little Book Store, which is on the main floor behind the circulation desk," explained Ms Earnshaw.

The Booth Library's Little Book Store manager, board of directors member, and primary holiday sale organizer, Marge Gingolaski, says she will be putting the boutique items that do not sell on the freestanding bookcase for those who may have missed the sale this weekend.

Ms Gingolaski is already planning for next year's book sales and says the library is already accepting drop-off items.

"I start today, collecting for next year, because we are always finding new things. We get such diverse items," said Ms Gingolaski. "It is a year-round operation."

All the hard work is worth it, though, especially when she gets to "see people come in and find something they love."

The first Saturday in December proved to be a wonderful way to start celebrating the holiday season in Newtown.