Date: Fri 21-Nov-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: SHANNO

Quick Words:

holiday-festival

Full Text:

Festival Will Bring Holiday Season To Main Street

(with cuts)

Aside from the tree lighting ceremony at Ram Pasture, Newtown's largest

community-wide holiday event is just two weekends away.

The Family Counseling Center's (formerly known as The Family Life Center of

Newtown) 12th Annual Holiday Festival will take place this year on Sunday,

December 7, from 10 am to 5 pm. The event is centered around Newtown's quaint

Main Street, and attracts about 1,500 visitors each year. Proceeds benefit the

Family Counseling Center, a United Way-supported, licensed and accredited

non-profit family counseling agency serving the greater Danbury and Southbury

area.

Activities are planned for the afternoon of the festival to attract visitors

of all ages and interests. Frequent shuttle busses will run between all

festival locations.

The festival features a walking tour of selected Main Street area historic

homes and buildings, each beautifully decorated for the holiday season. The

house tour will include a 1760 Colonial, a 1757 farmhouse, an 1840 cottage

with 1997 renovations, and an 1888 Victorian. One of the homes, which has been

rumored to be haunted in the past, had a time capsule from the 1940s pulled

out of its walls just last weekend. The findings of the time capsule will be

on display during the house tour.

Trinity Church and the Matthew Curtiss House, both on Main Street, will also

be open all day to visitors.

The festival also boasts an antiques show and sale, held in the gymnasium of

Edmond Town Hall, 45 Main Street. Dealers present offerings of Victoriana,

country furniture and fine folk art, antique toys, linens, fine china and

silver, among other collectibles categories.

In the town hall's Alexandria Room, festivalgoers are invited to relax at a

Victorian Tea. Teas, tea breads and scones will be served all day, while live

musical performances by various groups are presented.

This year, the Festival of Trees is planned to take place at the renovated

C.H. Booth Library. (If the library has not yet opened, the alternate location

for the Festival of Trees is Newtown Savings Bank.) Over 35 participating

donors have been hard at work decorating the trees for the popular event.

Visitors purchase tickets and enter raffle drawings for each tree they choose.

At the end of the festival day, a winner is selected for each tree. Among

those working on trees this year are area Girl Scout troops, local realtors

including Curtiss & Crandon and Flagpole Realty, nurseries including Long View

Tree Farm and Steck's, the Western Connecticut Credit Union, The Plant Cellar

of Bethel, Newtown Hardware, Joy's Hallmark, Drug Center, JW Floral and

Antiques, and Black Swan Stove Shop.

At Newtown Middle School, a crafts show and sale features craftsmen offering

cloth dolls, stained glass, holiday decorations, dried flower arrangements,

toys and much more. The New England Cafe, set up in the school's cafeteria,

offers another refreshment break for visitors.

A day-long children's workshop is also presented at the middle school.

Children age three through fourth grade can be dropped off at the craft area

while their parents go on the house tour or visit other festival events, and

the children are entertained for up to three hours with games and craft times.

Activities also include story telling with professional storyteller Joyce

Marie Rayno, and a visit with Santa Claus. The workshop is free, as long as

parents are festival ticket-holders.

Throughout the day the festival is always brought to life with live musical

entertainment. Performers can be found at the Victorian Tea, Newtown Meeting

House, and Soldiers & Sailors Monument. Town criers and strolling carolers

will be walking and singing along Main Street as well.

Trinity Church will be open all day as part of the walking tour. Continuing

the live music of the festival, the church will host "Advent Lessons and

Carols," a concert by the church's Adult Boys' & Girls' Choir, at 4 pm. The

choir will also be performing at the Meeting House during the day.

The antiques show and sale and the crafts show and sale will open at 10 am;

all other events begin at 11 am.

Tickets for the Holiday Festival provide admission to all events, as well as

rides on the shuttle busses between locations. Cost is $12 in advance, or $15

the day of the festival. Senior tickets and tickets for children ages 8-14 are

$8 whether purchased in advance or the day of.

Advance tickets are available, through December 6, at Elizabeth's Tea Room,

Family Counseling Center, Newtown Savings Bank branches (Newtown, Bethel,

Monroe and Southbury), Bob Tendler Real Estate, Dr Gellert's office and Drug

Center Pharmacy. The day of the event, ticket booths will be set up at Newtown

Middle School, C.H. Booth Library and Edmond Town Hall.

Program guides, with a map to the homes and businesses on the house tour, a

schedule and additional information about the homes and historic Newtown, will

be available to all ticket holders. They can be picked up on Holiday Festival

day at the middle school or the town hall.