Holiday festivities at the libraries

Libraries do more than loan reading material. The Blaine County Library, in Chinook, and the Harlem Library both offered learning programs to help attendees prepare for a successful Christmas holiday season. While the programs were not technically "information services" in the typical library sense, there was a lot of information sharing to help deal with some of the challenges of the holiday season.

Blaine County Library

The Blaine County Library hosted its 24th Annual Hassle-Free Christmas program last week. According to Library Director Val Frank, the long running event offers everything from decorating tips to new recipes with examples for tasting. Frank said, "This is my twenty-second year organizing the program. We had about 70+ attend and that is a normal participation."

After some musical selections by the Ecumenical Echoes, the local bell choir, locals gave demonstrations or presentations related to preparation for the upcoming Christmas season. Barb Jergeson demonstrated the door ornaments she makes for each resident's door at the Grande Villa, where she's the manager.

Kendra Seilstad, Blaine County's 4H/Family Consumer Science Agent, spoke about "holiday entertaining on a shoestring." She suggested considerations for entertaining from picking the right invitation for an event to themed parties and related food. Seilstad said, "My co-worker, Ben Hauptman, suggested an interesting approach that he called 'a white trash themed' event where decorations and food were minimal." She laughed about the suggestion but added, "I guess it could be useful in certain circumstances." Sherry Edwards did a short demonstration on how to make a rag angel.

After another musical selection by the bell choir, Assistant Librarian Kelsey Harry read "The Light of Christmas." The children's book was illustrated with slides projected on the wall and was about a little boy who achieved a dream by doing an act of kindness. Harry had other Christmas-themed books around the room, reading for kids and adults during the holidays.

After the program participants moved to the adjacent Senior Center to sample a number of holiday food and drink items, and some visiting. The refreshments were prepared by library staff and board members. Copies of recipes for each item were available. Participants agreed it was a helpful and fun event.

Harlem Library

The Harlem Library hosts a monthly program to introduce topics of interest to locals. For the pre-Christmas event, Librarian Colleen Brommer invited Sherry Edwards to teach a program on how to make 'rag angels'. It was an opportunity for attendees to learn the process of making the dolls and go home with one they made themselves. Eleven ladies showed up for the program.

Interestingly, the early arrivers jumped right into the process. Edwards commented "I've never seen such a highly motivated group. Wait for me to catch up with you so you don't have to undo something."

The rag doll bodies are made from torn strips of material, the remaining hanging threads give the body character. The strips are attached to a Styrofoam head, arms are braided into shape and the rest is adding embellishments-from halos and moss hair to rouged cheeks and some holiday item being held by the angel. There was a lot of creativity going on.

Of interest were the comments overhead during the construction of the dolls. A crafter would hold up their work in progress and assess how it was going. Some random comments were noted: "My angel's arms look like she's been tossing hay bales (big arms)." Or, "Her hair looks like mine (referring to the moss used for the hair that was stringy and sticking out in every direction)." And the classic, "My angel looks like a floozy (brightly rouged cheeks)." That last comment brought a big laugh from all the crafters.

After the creative session the group moved to the library lounge for some holiday treats. Librarian Brommer had made several special Christmas goodies, with copies of recipes for each delicacy. The group's favorite was "Holiday Bacon Appetizers". The bacon wraps were made from a Club cracker, with a sprinkle of parmesan cheese, wrapped and baked with a strip of bacon around it. That seemed to prove the old saying, "Anything tastes good with bacon on or in it."

Thanks to the library staffs and presenters who shared their tips for the two programs, as well as those who prepared the goodies to share. Both events helped get participants a little closer to the true Christmas spirit-a time to share and give.