The Grinch Comes to Council
On Saturday, December 13, the Council Valley Free Library hosted their first annual Kids Christmas Extravaganza. This turned out to be one of the largest events at the library all year, with well over 100 children and adults coming to join the festivities. “It was a huge turnout,” said Librarian Milise Blanton.
The Christmas Extravaganza was an expansion on the Saturday Story Times that the library has been hosting, spearheaded by JJ and Danielle Perino, who is now Treasurer for the Friends of the Library. On December 13, however, it was much more than simply a story time. The Library was turned into a winter wonderland and there were multiple crafts, contests, and games for the children. “Just to draw that many people,”said Danielle Perino, “it was amazing!”
Arguably one of the most popular attractions was the culmination of the Gingerbread House Competition, which received a total of 28 entries! Visitors to the library Saturday were able to vote on their favorite gingerbread house and there were three winners from different age categories. The best house 0-5 Years went to Makenna LaGrone, 6-9 Years was Adira Gratton, and 10+ went to Adriel Collings with a clocktower design. Danielle Perino said there were a surprising number of teenagers who participated in the contest. “It was really encouraging to us to have some of the older kids participate,” she said. There were also prizes for guessing the correct number of M&M’s and finding the Grinch!
The kids participated in a variety of crafts, such as designing giant snowflakes and making ornaments and wire bead Christmas trees, and there was a hot cocoa bar and plentiful snacks. There were also a variety of sensory fun games and activities and every child received a literacy based goody bag to take home.
Of course, there was also a story time, where the Grinch made a special appearance! Much to the delight of the children present, the Grinch busted in while they were singing “Jingle Bells” to complain about the noise. The children had a lot of fun bantering with the Grinch and reading his story! This event, which spanned three hours, was a great addition to the Christmas activities for children in town. “It was quite the success,” said Milise Blanton.
The Council Valley Free Library is excited to be hosting more events like this that appeal to the whole community. One thing they are hoping to do is expand more programming to the older ages, teens, but also adults in the community. Perino, who has been helping with the story times, mentioned that older community members have started coming to the story times because they like the energy of the events, and parents love the opportunity provided to talk to one another and connect. As part of that effort to find more community engagement opportunities for older community members, the library is planning on hosting more frequent small fundraising events this year to see what people enjoy and what resonates with the community. They are planning on doing a family friendly trivia night sometime in January that will be a fundraiser for the library, but hopefully also an exciting event that will appeal to the whole family.
Thank you to all the volunteers who help to support our libraries and our communities, and especially to librarian Milise Blanton, for a wonderful year of fun events and good reads!
