Festivities beginning for Christmas season

The iconic Christmas tree is the centre of the special celebration at Sissiboo Landing in Weymouth. As many of you know, Sissiboo Landing was designed to focus attention on the five founding cultures of the Weymouth area—Mi’kMaq First Nations, United Empire Loyalist, Black Loyalist, Acadians and the French settlers of New France. The centre brings the stories of the five cultures and their cooperation alive with displays and interactive exhibits.

This year, the Landing will again be hosting the Festival of Trees. The organizers believe that this is a wonderful opportunity to showcase your business or organization and to support a good cause, by decorating a Christmas tree and having it displayed for the public during the season. There is a $10 entry fee and as space is limited, please book or confirm your participation with Jeanne Nesbitt at 837-5631 by Nov. 14.

Trees must be fully set up by Thursday, Nov. 27, at 8 p.m. The festival extends from Nov. 29 through Dec. 13, and on ballots will be available Nov. 29 - 30 to vote on your favourite tree. Votes will be counted and the winner announced Dec. 4 on WoW-TV Bingo. Other family orientated community activities will coincide with this event. Watch for details.

Merchants in Digby also have an ambitions plan for the weeks preceding Christmas. A few weeks ago several members of the business community got together and launched a ‘Shop Digby’ website www.shopdigby.com.

On this site they will be profiling the businesses that are participating in this marketing venture. This business group will be sponsoring special events from Friday, Nov. 28, to Sunday, Nov. 30. These include a tree lighting, Santa’s elves, which is a dress-up contest for the children, as well as a fireworks display, hot chocolate and cookies, a Saturday ‘breakfast with Santa’ at the new A little Taste of Heaven, a giant sidewalk sale, sleigh rides and more.

This collaborative effort is designed to encourage citizens to buy locally. The focus is family and the mood will be celebratory. The Digby business group is still actively looking for other business participants. If you would like to include your business in this enterprise, contact Roger Marshall or Mike Bartlett.

Organizers of these two initiatives are hopeful that this festive atmosphere will be a great start to a joyous holiday and signal a prosperous new year.