Your help is needed with FESTIVAL OF THE FJORD holiday plans

Rachel Hansen | editor, TRACING THE FJORD

It's hard to anticipate Christmas, we haven't even had Halloween – but, better to be prepared then scrambling to navigate celebration in a COVID world.

For the Winter Fjord Issue – send us your memories and traditions, send us your Christmas pictures. Share your favorite recipes. We want to see it all.

Besides, what we need most right now is to look forward to positive events. Lately there has been a sense of uncertainty that is weighing heavy on all of our familes. Our kids are struggling with online school routines and missing their friends.

We're reaching out to YOU – residents, businesses, visitors – to help us make this the best Festival on the Fjord ever.

Plans are in the works for Shelton (Christmastown, USA) to decorate their main street so they are dripping with good cheer. The Christmas trees at the Courthouse and Post Office will be shining brightly and we are working with local farms to create corner tree displays festooned with beach-polished oyster shells and white LED lights. The Beauchamp Santa will be reinstalled at Outlook Park in November. Once again there will be prizes for the best holiday lights and business windows. Depending on how restrictions progress, volunteers are planning craft events that can be hosted in small groups or virtually with take home kits families can complete together. We are also working with businesses to host a countywide gingerbread contest, displaying entries in street windows.

Let the Fjord know all the things your communities are doing to celebrate –virtually or traditionally.

And share your ideas! Let's work together to brainstorm giving trees, toys, and meals so that everyone's Christmas is the best it can be. Please email your ideas, stories, photos, recipes, craft ideas, and events to rachel@nwevent.org by November 1st for inclusion in the holiday edition of the Festival of the Fjord.

Thank you so much for your support of this project. The winter issue will mark the 5th year of this publication. I am honored to be able to share your fjord's stories.