By Shannon Hicks

The organizers for this year’s holiday festival, the 14th annual presentation of the Main Street and area event held the first Sunday in December, were lucky again this year when it came to the weather.

People of all ages were seen walking and smiling a lot on Sunday, December 5, when the 14th annual Newtown Holiday Festival was presented.  Shuttle buses ran between event sites, but many people chose to walk all or part of Main Street, upper Church Hill Road and the small part of West Street to where the historic homes tour extended.

The temperatures were unusually warm for a December afternoon, and many people were seen strolling around in their shirtsleeves on Sunday. In addition to being a seasonal highlight for many town and area residents, the holiday festival is a major fundraiser for the Family Counseling Center, Inc. of Newtown.

From 11 am to 5 pm, people visited the Chiapetta residence at 6 Main Street, the home of Tammara and Ian McMahon at 4 West Street, Ellen and George Whalen’s 65 Main Street home, the home of Meghan Rice at 1 Schoolhouse Hill Road, and the Benson home at 42 Mount Pleasant Road. Also open for visits were the offices of The Bee Publishing Co., the Matthew Curtiss House, the Newtown General Store, and Trinity Church.

Edmond Town Hall was one of the busiest festival sites this year, playing host to two performances by Malenkee Ballet Company’s original production of A Malenkee Nutcracker and a pre-Madrigal Dinner performance by the Newtown High School Madrigal Singers in the auditorium. Newtown artist David Merrill spent a number of hours leading tours of the town hall murals that took him nearly ten years to complete.

Upstairs, a Victorian Tea was continuously busy, as visitors stopped in for scones, tea and conversation, while local musicians performed on the stage. Rumor had it the place settings for the refreshments were from the original closet of town benefactress Mary Hawley.

In the Mary Hawley Room on the town hall’s main floor, Newtown Country Mill had set up a lively display of country products for home decorating or gift giving that drew a lot of interest throughout the day. And in the building’s gymnasium, antiques lovers were found perusing the aisles of the festival’s traditional antiques show.

The Festival of Trees moved in to new quarters this year. The event was in the undercroft of Trinity Church, and the larger quarters were well suited for the 25-plus trees, wreaths and gift baskets donated by local groups, individuals and businesses that were offered through a silent auction.

For children, the Festival of Trees featured door prizes this year. Every child who visited Trinity was given three tickets, which were then placed in a bag corresponding to any of the trees decorated by Newtown’s Girl and Boy Scout groups. Tickets for the children’s trees were drawn at the end of the day, and the children were given the trees they had hoped for at the close of the festival.

Newtown Congregational Church House was home to a new event last weekend, this one designed for entire family participation. A family workshop ran from noon to 5 pm in which children and their parents were invited to create holiday crafts together. Face painting was offered, and Santa was visiting for most of the afternoon as well.

The festival’s New England Café also had a new location this year, moving out of Newtown Middle School’s cafeteria and into the lower meeting room of the church house. Luncheon fare included everything from soup and chowder, pizza, hot dogs and sandwiches to soda, coffee and hot chocolate.

C.H. Booth Library was once again a festival location this year, this time playing host to the event’s crafts show and sale. Area crafters offered dolls, wooden folk art and country-inspired designs, Russian eggs and crafts, jewelry, stained glass, holiday decorations, flower arrangements and toys, among other inventories.

The weather held all afternoon, never even clouding over during the run of the festival. By daybreak Monday, the temperature had plummeted and rain was falling. Fortunately by Monday morning the festival was another successful chapter in the history books so a rainstorm or any other typical December weather was not a problem.