As the holiday season arrives, the Penns Valley area will offer several events to celebrate the season.
The Centre Hall Community Christmas, sponsored by the Centre Hall Council of Churches, will kick off with a community tree lighting at St. Luke Lutheran Church at 6:30 p.m. on Nov. 29. Citizens can gather around the tree at the intersection of Pennsylvania Avenue and West Church Street for carol singing when the tree lights come on. Refreshments will follow in the church social hall.
The event will continue on Nov. 30 with a craft fair in the social hall of Grace United Methodist Church. Last year’s event drew 18 local vendors, offering a variety of handmade craft items. Food prepared by church members will be sold as a fundraiser for mission outreach projects.
Children’s activities will be held at the Centre Hall Lions Club Park from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. with Cub Scouts Pack 20, Girl Scout Senior Troop 40226, Girl Scout Junior Troop 40076 and Friends of Centre Hall Public Library. A concert by the Penns Valley Men’s Chorus will be presented at Trinity United Church of Christ at 3 p.m. on Saturday.
Centre Hall Community Christmas will conclude with a Christmas cantata titled “Sing Christmas” at St. Luke Lutheran Church at 3 p.m. on Dec. 1. The choir, directed by Susan Stover, consists of members of the choirs of the town’s three churches. A light soup and sandwich community meal will follow in the church social hall.
The Christmas season will begin in Millheim on Dec. 6-7 with the town’s ninth annual Merry Millheim celebration. This event features several attractions including music, crafts and other activities held in and around downtown Millheim.
The Handmade Holiday Market in the Bremen Town Ballroom will be held on Friday night and on Saturday, and will feature many local artisans and vendors showing their wares, including jewelry, wool items, wood and metal items, soaps, decorative items and many other interesting articles.
Across Main Street, the Inglebean Coffee House will feature a bake sale and open mic music. An art show reception at the Green Drake Art Gallery will be held from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Live music will be featured, as well as many works of art by local artists.
Several merchants in Millheim will offer special deals for local shoppers.
The 11th annual Holiday Craft Fair will be held on Dec. 7 at the Old Gregg School Community Center in Spring Mills as a fundraiser supporting the center’s yearround activities.
Vendors will occupy the gymnasium and first floor hallway in the building, where all types of craft and food items will be available to shoppers. A wide variety of items from many vendors are typically seen at this event, including jewelry, house wares, decorative holiday items, handmade purses, clothing, food items and many others.
In a basement room in the school building, the Nittany Valley Model Railroad Club will hold its annual open house for the public to enjoy its large HO scale model train layout, which features several running trains. The club has about a dozen members who have been working on the multi-level layout since the spring of 2012. The layout features several scale miles of track, with realistic landscaping and trackside buildings. The club meets in the layout room at the Old Gregg School on Tuesday nights for work sessions.
