Largest Annual Fundraiser For Family Counseling Center—

Newtown’s Holiday Festival Is In Its Final Stages Of Preparations

By Shannon Hicks

When the 19th Annual Newtown Holiday Festival is presented on Sunday, December 5, regular attendees will notice some changes and additions to an event that has become a major focal point for the holiday season.

Laura Miller Kurtz and Leslie Troy have stepped into the shoes of Nancy Obremski, who single-handedly chaired the festival for the past two years after co-chairing it with Lynne Brault in 2001. Mrs Obremski’s family was moving out of Newtown this fall, so it was time for another change of leadership for the holiday festival.

Mrs Miller Kurtz and Mrs Troy have kept the staples of the festival — the arts and crafts show and sale, the antiques show and sale, the tour of private homes, live music, a Victorian Tea Room and an informal New England Café, and the Festival of Trees — but they have changed some locations, or, working with chairmen of each event, have reinvented an offering.

After years of trying, a new event has been added. Students of Newtown High School will be featured in an art show and sale, with artists vying for a scholarship while exhibiting some of their favorite works. The art show and sale will be open from 10 am until 5 pm.

As has been true for all previous Holiday Festivals, entry to most events will be through a ticket. Advance tickets are available at Family Counseling Center, 121 Mt Pleasant Road (Route 6); C.H. Booth Library, 25 Main Street; Drug Center Pharmacy, 61 Church Hill Road; and all branches of Newtown Savings Bank.

Advance tickets are $25 for adults, or $22 with the ad printed in The Newtown Bee. (The ad has already appeared in recent issues of The Bee, it appears in the holiday supplement that accompanies this week’s Newtown Bee, and it will repeat in next week’s Newtown Bee.)

Tickets for children/students and senior citizens are $23 in advance, or $20 with ad.

On the day of the festival, tickets will be available at most event locations including Edmond Town Hall and Newtown High School. That day, tickets will be $28 for adults ($25 with the ad), $25 for children/students and seniors ($22 with ad).

This year’s events and their locations are as follows: Antiques Show & Sale at Newtown High School cafeteria, opens at 10 am; Arts & Crafts Show & Sale at Newtown High School foyer and gymnasium, opens at 10; Festival of Trees at Edmond Town Hall, a raffle for theme baskets, decorated wreaths and miniature trees, gift items, gift certificates, etc, created by local individuals, groups and businesses, with tickets available at one for $2, three for $5, and eight for $10, opens at 11, drawings will be at 4 pm.

Also, there will be the Ideas Homes Tour, running 11 am to 5 pm, with Holiday Festival ticket-holders allowed entry into seven private homes with different decorating themes. The addresses of these homes and a map to their location will be available in program books being printed for the day of the festival.

The Ideas Homes Tour is probably the largest change to the festival this year. In the past, ticket holders have been invited to walk through most rooms of a privately owned home on or near Main Street. While the location of the homes is still in the same general area, the homes tour has been renamed Idea Houses and visitors will be kept to one or two main rooms in each home this year.

Each home will feature a different decorative theme. Some homes will have snacks for ticket-holders, another may offer a soft drink, and another will invite visitors to create small craft.

In addition to the private homes, Newtown Savings Bank — a major sponsor of the event and a large part of the town’s financial history — will also be open for visits on December 5.

Refreshments will be available this year through New England Café, at Trinity Episcopal Church’s undercroft, 30 Main Street, with pizza, muffins and similar snacks, and soft drinks, running noon to 5 pm; New England Café Too!, a new presentation at Newtown High School, featuring food prepared by NHS Culinary Arts students, also running noon to 5 pm; and the Victorian Tea Room, in Edmond Town Hall’s Alexandria Room, featuring homemade scones, tea breads, hot teas, and related offerings, accompanied by live music, running 11 am to 5 pm.

The music at the Victorian Tea Room is being coordinated by Julie Cook, the owner of Julie’s Piano Workshop in Sandy Hook. Strolling carolers, who will be outdoors during the run of the event, are being coordinated by Newtown Historical Society music director Mary Andreotta.

Live ballet is also returning this year, with students of Newtown Centre for Classical Ballet Studies performing excerpts from the holiday classic, The Nutcracker. Artistic director Jennifer Johnston spoke with The Newtown Bee this week about these performances; see details in John Voket’s story below.

Admission is $5 for those who wish to view the ballet performances only, or it is included within the Holiday Festival tickets. Performances will be at 1 and 3 pm in the theater of Edmond Town Hall.

Finally — or maybe we should say prior to the festival — there is a Holiday Festival Gala being planned for the eve of the festival itself. The public is invited to join most of the committee members and Holiday Festival volunteers, and some staff members of Family Counseling Center, for a formal evening of holiday merriment.

The gala will return to The Amber Room Colonnade in Danbury on the evening of Saturday, December 4. Tickets are $100 per person, and there are a few tickets still remaining (as of earlier this week, 17 of the 21 available tables had been filled). The gala includes a sit-down dinner, silent and live auctions, and music and dancing.

For ticket purchases and additional information contact Family Life Center at 426-8103.