Warren lights up the holidays Friday night

Warren Holiday Festival runs Friday and Saturday

By Ted Hayes
Posted 11/23/18

Marilyn Mathison always turns on Christmas music the week before Thanksgiving, when she’s making final arrangements for the annual Warren Holiday Festival, which will be held this Friday and …

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Warren lights up the holidays Friday night

Warren Holiday Festival runs Friday and Saturday

Posted

Marilyn Mathison always turns on Christmas music the week before Thanksgiving, when she’s making final arrangements for the annual Warren Holiday Festival, which will be held this Friday and Saturday, Nov. 23 and 24:
“It always cheers me up,” said Ms. Mathison, who has run Warren’s holiday celebration for nearly 20 years and was in a serious time crunch, as always last week and over the weekend. “This is my most stressful (time) but it really helps.”
She hopes all will share in that Christmas spirit when the two-day festival kicks off around 5 p.m. this Friday. The festival has grown over the years and includes two days of caroling, holiday lighting, concerts, a procession complete with Santa atop a fire truck, juggling and other performances, and plenty of other Christmas cheer. This year?
“I’m really excited about it!”
As in all other years, Warren will light its holiday lights at approximately 7:30 p.m. Friday in front of Warren Town Hall. In the two hours or so leading up to it, residents — more than 1,000 came to downtown Warren last year — will start lining Main Street, Water Street, Baker and surrounding streets, dropping in on a host of activities planned throughout downtown. The festival continues Saturday, with dozens of workshops and events for adults and kids, and a concurrent shopping festival put on by Warren merchants at the Cutler Mill.
For a complete list of festival events, see www.eastbayri.com or see the Warren Holiday Festival Facebook page. A few highlights:

Friday
* Procession: The holiday lighting culminates around 7:30 p.m. in front of Warren Town Hall, following a procession that starts on Water Street and runs up Broad to Main. While volunteers give out votive candles every year, this year kids will be able to make an old-fashioned candle holder for them. Pick them up, and candles, at the Warren Rescue headquarters on Miller Street, between 5 and 7 p.m.
* Circus Dynamics, a crowd-pleasing juggling and fire show, will have two performances pre-lighting, at the Masonic Temple on Baker Street. Show times are 5:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. In addition this year, Crazy Banana Wig, a kids’ music troupe, will perform at the Warren Yacht Club. Show times are also 5:30 and 6:30 p.m.
* The hours after the lighting are when the party really begins. This year, there will be two bands starting at approximately 8 p.m. at the Warren Armory on Jefferson Street. The music starts with an acoustic duo, and then the rockers take over. There is no cover charge, and beer and wine will be sold. Free pizza and dessert to all who attend.

Saturday
* Learn how to make reindeer food from noon to 2 p.m. at the Warren Armory. And please bring canned goods for the Boy Scouts, who are collecting for food pantries.
* Circus Dynamics holds another performance Saturday, at 2 p.m. at the Armory. When it’s done, kids can make animal balloons. Then at 3 p.m. there will be a two-person vaudevillian variety show.
* There will be a moonwalk and Touch a Truck at the Fire Department headquarters, a gingerbread cookie workshop for kids at the George Haile Library, fireplace cooking at the Maxwell House Museum, and free chowder at Blount Market on Water Street. Don’t forget to take the trolley to get from point to point.
* There will be a big artists’ show and open house at 30 Cutler Saturday. The trolley runs back and forth from the mill complex, so look for it to get from point to point.

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