––E.B. White

‘Tis the season of good tidings … and road rage, bargain-crazed mobs, and all the other the surly trappings of materialism. So we find ourselves longing once again for the simple kind of Christmas still faintly visible when E.B. White was alive and writing in his salty farmhouse on the coast of Maine.

But this is Fairfield County, Connecticut, in 2003 and we’ve got to do the best with what we’ve got, which unfortunately for so many people is Interstate 84, crowded malls, and not nearly enough time between now and the New Year. There is, however, a way around these formidable obstacles, and it starts, quite literally, right here in Newtown –– at the tree lighting ceremony.

Gathering a thousand or more people around a spruce tree in the Ram Pasture in the soft glow of luminaria, singing carols, counting down from ten, and illuminating the town Christmas tree somehow rekindles our flickering faith that gifts of great value are still bestowed on those who believe in rebirth and the eventual triumph of light over darkness –– even on the longest and darkest nights of the year. In so many ways, Newtown is getting too big and unwieldy, but on the night we light the Christmas tree, we are still a small Connecticut town. The tree lighting festivities commence on Friday evening at 6:30 pm. Go early. Parking is scarce, but even if you have to walk a distance, you shouldn’t miss one of the most memorable nights of the year.

Our path to Christmas also leads right through the middle of town where the annual Holiday Festival on Sunday, benefiting the Family Counseling Center, fills finely decorated private homes and public buildings with arts and crafts, antiques, music, and good food. And the people moving up and down Main Street between events aren’t harried and stressed-out strangers –– they are people we know. And they are all having fun.

If it so happens that you emerge from the Holiday Festival with some gift shopping left to do, the key to surviving the chaotic crush of last-minute Christmas shopping is to stay as close to home as possible. The Bee’s annual Holiday Gift Guide, published last week, is a veritable roadmap to low-stress shopping that rarely leads more than a few miles from home. Most of what you see in catalogs and advertised in the megamalls can be found locally in shops run by people you know. They can make your holidays better, and you can return the favor.

So if you long for a simple kind of Christmas, don’t be distracted by all the ribbons and wrappings at the other end of the interstate. Newtown not only has what you want, it has what you need.