It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas: A Guide To Celebrating The Holidays In Harford County

If you know of a holiday event in or around Harford County and don’t see it on this list, please send the information our way or add the details in the comments below this story.

Twenty-Nine Years of Christmas Giving with Harford County Sheriff’s Office

The Harford County Sheriff’s Office Annual Christmas Drive is underway for the 29th year. This year’s drive is being chaired by Captain Steve Thomas and Lauren Brooks. The Harford County Sheriff’s Office has been committed to helping families during the holiday season for more than a quarter of a century. The program has grown significantly in the last 29 years through the dedication and help of dozens of volunteers from the Harford County Sheriff’s Office, the Harford County Sheriff’s Office Explorers Post 6600, the Harford County Sheriff’s Office Citizens’ Police Academy Alumni Association and a variety of committed business, civic and community members. In 2010, the Christmas Drive reached out to and helped over 140 families (190 adults and 282 children). Christmas gifts and food were delivered to various communities throughout the county.

The Harford County Sheriff’s Office is accepting donations of toys, non-perishable foods; holiday candy; personal hygiene items such as soap, shampoo, toothpaste, toothbrushes and deodorant; first aid supplies such as band-aids and bandages. Toys specifically sought out this year are dolls, crayons, actions figures, and games. Items for teens, ages 12-15 are also in high demand. Specifically requested for girls are purses, make-up and lotions and for boys, sports equipment and games. Cash is accepted and checks should be made payable to the “Sheriff’s Office Employee Fund.”

Collection drop boxes can be found at the following locations:

Harford County Sheriff’s Office Headquarters
45 S. Main Street in Bel Air

HCSO Southern Precinct
1717 Gateway Drive in Edgewood MD

HCSO Northern Precinct
3726 Norrisville Road in Jarrettsville

Harford County Detention Center
1030 Rock Spring Avenue in Bel Air

Giant Food Stores (food donations only)
3229 Emmorton Road in Abingdon MD

Giant Food Store (food donation only)
1401 Rock Spring Road in Forest Hill MD

Y of Central Maryland
101 Walter Ward Blvd. Abingdon MD

Prearranged drop off’s may also be made at the “Christmas Shop,” located in the Festival at Bel Air.

“It is in the true Christmas spirit to give where it is needed. We can only do this through the generosity of all of our volunteers and the donations from the community,” stated Captain Thomas, co-chair of the Annual Christmas Drive. “As a member of the Harford County Sheriff’s Office, it is my privilege to partner with our community on behalf of such a worthwhile endeavor.”

For more information, to volunteer to help or request assistance, feel free to contact Lauren Brooks at 410-836-5494 or Captain Thomas at 410-638-4811.

Capt’n Jim’s Christmas “Coffee Talk” Nov. 29

Dec. 3, Christmas Street in Aberdeen. For more than 30 years Christmas Street has marked the arrival of the Holiday Season in Harford County. Parade starts at 3 PM

Dec 3 Jarrettsville Nurseries will be sending 100 Christmas Trees to Veterans across the Nation. Fed X is participating in this event to deliver the trees to designated locations. Program gets underway at 10 am. The public is welcome.

Dec 3 SSO Holiday Concert -7:30 p.m. Bel Air High School Auditorium. FOR MORE INFORMATION GO TO www.ssorchestra.org

Dec 4 BEL AIR CHRISTMAS CELEBRATION Festivities begin at 2:45 pm with a concert in front of the Harford County Courthouse by the Patrick Redmond Band. At 3:30 pm, the parade moves down Main Street to Lee Street, featuring the Ravens Cheerleaders, the Oriole Bird, and more. At Shamrock Park, between 4 – 5 pm the Bel Air Community Band will perform, with free refreshments. There’s also a bonfire and a Special Tree Lighting at 5 pm

Dec 4 Bel Air Community Chorus Christmas Concert 7 PM Bel Air High School Auditorium

Dec 11 Bel Air Community Band Christmas Concert. Free Admission Bel Air High School Auditorium.

Dec 16 17 18 “CHRISTMAS AT THE LIRIODENDRON” Visit this beautiful turn of the century Mansion decorated in elegant turn of the century style. Model train displays, decorated trees, craft sales and more.

This year let’s think about Buying AND Giving LOCAL.

A gift certificate from your local American hair salon or barber?
Gym membership? Car detailed?
Think about a gift like getting the driveway sealed, or the lawn mowed for the summer, or driveway cleared of snow every time it snows, or golf at the driving range.
Locally owned restaurants offer gift certificates.
Your favorite bakery or bagel shop is an idea also.
Who couldn’t use an oil change gift certificate?
Mom would LOVE the services of a local cleaning lady for a day.
My computer could use a tune-up, and I know I can find some young guy who is struggling to get his repair business up and running.
Plan your holiday outings at local restaurants and leave your server a nice tip.
How about a subscription to the Susquehanna Symphony Orchestra or donating an instrument in a loved one’s name. Musicians need love too.
Find a venue showcasing our local Bel Air Community Band and Bel Air Community Chorus. A gift to these cultural groups in the name of a family member makes a great gift that will continue to give for a longtime.
Honestly, folks do you REALLY need another ten thousand Chinese lights for the house?
Think about a tidy envelope (cash) for the mailman, trash guys or the milk man!(?)

Christmas is now caring about US, (U.S.) encouraging American small businesses to keep plugging away to follow their dreams.

THIS should be the new American Christmas tradition. This is a revolution of caring about each other, and isn’t that really the true meaning of Christmas!

22nd Annual Bel Air Christmas Parade and Tree Lighting Celebration

This annual event is FREE to all!

Schedule of Events:
2:30 – 3:30 pm: Main Street Concert, Patrick Redmond Band

3:30 – 4:15 pm: Grand Parade on Main Street (Churchville Road to Lee Street), Narrated by Teri Kranefeld

4:00 – 5:00 pm: Music, Carols, Bonfire, Hot Chocolate and Cookies for all (provided by Coffee Coffee and Wegmans Food Markets) in Shamrock Park; Featuring the Bel Air Community Band and Master of Ceremonies, “Captain” Jim McMahan.

5:00 pm: Majestic Tree Lighting

Currently Scheduled to Appear:

The Ravens Cheerleaders; Stilt-walkers and acrobats; marching bands from Bel Air High School, C. Milton Wright High School, John Carroll School, Joppatowne High School, Patterson Mill High School, Fallston High School, and Edgewood High School; costumed characters and mascots including Ferrous, Ripcord, The Oriole Bird, the Cat in the Hat, the Grinch, Frosty the Snowman, McGruff the Crime Dog and Spiderman; plus Miss Maryland 2011 and other notables; plus musical performance groups including the Hoppin’ Hawks, the Silver Eagle Cloggers, the TwirlTasTix, Applause of Bel Air, and the Titans Drum Corps; plus marching units, miniature horses and horse-drawn wagons, a Living Christmas Tree, Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus, and much more!

Note: In the case of inclement weather, cancellation will be announced at noon on Sunday, December 4, 2011, on WBAL-AM 1090 and WYPR-FM 105.7, Alliance (www.downtownbelair.com) and Town of Bel Air (www.belairmd.org) web sites, and Alliance Facebook Page (www.facebook.com/DowntownBelAir). There is no rain date.

For more information on the event, please contact Scott T. Walker, Executive Director of the Bel Air Downtown Alliance, at (443) 823-1797 or swalker@downtownbelair.com.

33nd Annual Delta Christmas Fair and Mason-Dixon Line House Tour

Hosted by Delta Borough, the event Friday-Sunday involves businesses, churches, organizations and an artist in Delta Borough, Peach Bottom Township, Cardiff and Whiteford offering a variety of exhibits, special rates, refreshments and doorprizes. Also, a Delta-Cardiff-Whiteford Holiday House Tour is slated for 1-5 p.m. Sunday afternoon, featuring five local structures. (See related story.) Kick-off to the holiday festivities will be caroling processions at 7 p.m. Friday, December 3, from either end of Delta, which will progress to the borough’s tree site at Slate Quarry Fine Furniture, 520 Main Street. A live Nativity can be viewed 7-8 p.m. at First Baptist Church, 629 Main Street. Santa Claus will arrive to greet youngsters at the tree location, Kennard-Dale High School musicians will perform, people will sing holiday songs and carols, and dignitaries will be present as the Delta Christmas tree is illuminated at 8 p.m.

Mason-Dixon Lions Club will provide treats for kids, and winners of the Delta Holiday House Decorating Contest will be announced. Delta-Peach Bottom Elementary School’s PTS hosts Santa’s Workshop at the school at 1081 Atom Road, Delta, 4-7:30 p.m. Friday for youngsters who wish to shop by themselves for inexpensive gifts.

Special events Saturday include Delta Area Community Senior Center’s annual crafts show and pancake breakfast 8 a.m.-2 p.m. at 5 Pendyrus Street, Delta, and DCW Business Organization’s “DCW Christmas Village,” at 2419 Whiteford Road, Whiteford, where Santa, crafts-making, a kids’ giftshop, vendors, food sales and live music is presented.

“Christmas at the Firehouse” will be a flea market/crafts sale at Delta-Cardiff Volunteer Fire Company’s station at 500 Main Street, Delta, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday and 12 noon-4 p.m. Sunday. People may purchase meal items there, also.

An historic Coulsontown stone cottage at 28 Green Road, Delta, off of Ridge Road, once the home of a Welsh quarryman and now listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is open to visitors 1:30-4 p.m. Sunday

From 1-5 p.m. Sunday, artist Dave DeRan once again opens his studio-home on Pikes Peak Road, Delta, to Christmas Fair visitors and other guests 1-5 p.m. Sunday to display “Spots, Dots and Pointelles,” his latest watercolors, acrylics and oils. People visiting his exhibit can enjoy live bluegrass music and refreshments.

Concluding the Delta Christmas Fair weekend is the annual Christmas concert by Cor Cymraeg Rehoboth, Delta’s Welsh church’s concert choir.
Set for 5:30 p.m. Sunday at the chapel located at Main Street/Atom Road and Pendyrus Street, Delta, the renown choir will sing traditional Welsh and international seasonal numbers. Mason-Dixon Lions Club sells trees and wreaths near the Dooley Road/Route 165 intersection each day of the Christmas Fair.

During the weekend, the Old Line Museum at 602 Main Street will have information about activities, including the Coulsontown tour. In addition to its regular exhibits of local history, the museum features for the three-day fair special displays of a Plastic-ville train garden, other toy trains and Santas (we will hire a real beard Santa). Visitors will enjoy seeing an historic slate clock and other artifacts, and they may purchase and have signed Mary Boomsma’s Andy’s Peach Bottom Railroad Adventures. Museum hours are 6:30-8:30 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday and 1:30-4 p.m. Sunday.

Fair brochures describing activities are available at many area merchants, restaurants and the museum. The 33rd annual Delta Christmas Fair is sponsored by Delta Borough Council at no cost to participants.

Delta-Cardiff-Whiteford Holiday House Tour

The 2011 Delta Christmas Fair once again includes a tour of homes decorated for the holidays with trees, greenery and ornaments. Five house structures in the Mason-Dixon Line area welcome visitors this year at the Delta-Cardiff-Whiteford Holiday House Tour. Tickets are $10 per person, and profits will benefit Mason-Dixon Community Services’ fuel fund to assist area people with economic need. Guides will be present at each site to check tickets and narrate details of the houses’ histories and decors.

As people visit the various homes along Main and Chestnut streets in the towns, they will enjoy viewing the many structures cataloged in the National Register of Historic Places. They will also see the use of the region’s slate cut from local quarries in house foundations, roofs, sidewalks, walls and gutters.

Houses included in the December 4 tour are the following:

*1622 Main Street, Cardiff — Chelly and David Weimann and their children repeat the tour hospitality of previous owners in 1990 by opening their entire home. Built in 1902, and again after a fire in 1910, the house today has country “functional Victorian” furnishings. Garland surrounds the pocket-door archway between living and dining rooms, and the tree decorated with family ornaments is near the table set for holiday guests. The kitchen, den, four bedrooms and two baths will all bear holiday touches.

*1624 Main Street, Cardiff — The “modernized turn-of-the-century” home of Sue and Andy Welch repeats the tour hospitality of 1990. Tour visitors will see the garlanded staircase with original woodwork, the office Nativity scene, the livingroom angels and angel-decked tree and the family room Santas, as well as the kitchen and guest room decorations. Second-floor rooms will also be open for the tour, all bearing seasonal touches. People will see how the owners have adapted porches and other house facets.

*1624 Chestnut Street, Cardiff — Nancy and Mark Jones and daughters welcome guests to first- and second-floor rooms in their home, built in 1899. Furnishings include many antique family pieces, and red, green and gold holiday touches are used in seasonal decorations. The livingroom is the site of a six-foot live fir decorated with ornaments from two generations ago; the kitchen is ready for guests, and the staircase, bedrooms and baths all are ready for the holidays.

*401 Main Street, Delta — Cindy and Carter Seibel again welcome tour guests, as they did during the 1980s. Built 1903-5 by merchants Harvey and Clarence Stubbs, current owners have restored original features and transform its usual decor for Christmas. A nine-foot fir decorated with glass and silver ornaments is between livingroom and library, diningroom and kitchen tables are set for guests with holiday china, and the second-floor family room has a tree adorned with calico ornaments. Santas and angels are everywhere.

*510 Main Street, Delta – The home of Patti and David Broderick and family is open to visitors and displays holiday decorations in first-floor rooms, the hallway and second-floor landing. Amid eclectic furnishings are Christmas trees decorated on various themes–sentimental ornaments, Peanuts characters, family photos and touches of Ireland. The house’s usual décor is changed dramatically for the holidays, with nutcrackers, poinsettias, gingerbread men and other seasonal touches. The kitchen table is set with Thomas Kinkade Cristmas china.

Tickets are available during the Delta Christmas Fair Friday-Sunday at the Old Line Museum (602 Main Street, Delta), ReConnect Café (221 Main Street, Delta), The Tea Trolley (104 Main Street, Delta), Buon Gusto Pizzeria & Grill and Village Peddler (both in Penn-Mar Plaza, Whiteford). Prior to the fair weekend, tickets can be purchased at those four business sites and at Star Printing Company (811 Main Street, Delta ) Children under 12 are not admitted. And tour visitors are advised to wear no high heels or other shoes that may damage flooring. Delta Borough Council is sponsor of the event.

Harford County Office of Economic Development, Office of Tourism Publishes Holiday Schedule

Two-Time Grammy Winner Rita Coolidge Performs at Amoss Center in Bel Air

Get your tickets now for A Rita Coolidge Christmas. The performance will be held on December 10 at 7 PM in the Amoss Center in Bel Air.

Celebrate the holidays with two-time Grammy® Award winner Rita Coolidge as she sings enchanting holiday arrangements as well as her classic hits, including “Higher and Higher,” “We’re All Alone,” and “I’d Rather Leave While I’m in Love.” Her beautiful arrangement of “Silent Night,” her tribal influenced “Little Drummer Boy,” and her award-winning version of “Amazing Grace” performed in Cherokee will make memories to last a lifetime. Edgewood High School’s choir will also perform.

Harford Community College is a proud contributor to the Empty Stocking Fund and audience members are invited to bring a donation of a new and unwrapped children’s gift to this special holiday performance. These gifts will help give a magical holiday to less fortunate children in Harford County.

Tickets are $17-$35 and may be purchased by calling the HCC Ticket Office, 443-412-2211.
Reasonable accommodations for a documented disability may be requested by calling Disability Support Services, 443-412-2402, in advance of participation. A minimum notice of ten working days may be needed to provide some accommodations.

The HCC Fine Arts Calendar is made possible by a grant from Maryland State Arts Council, an agency funded by the State of Maryland and the National Endowment for the Arts; grants from the Maryland State Arts Council and the Harford County Government through the Harford County Cultural Arts Board; and grants from other federal and state agencies.

Aberdeen Holiday Decorating Contest Rules and Application

The Aberdeen Heritage Trust, in partnership with Century 21 Curry Agency, Harford Bank, and the Aberdeen Appearance and Preservation Committee is sponsoring a Holiday Home and Business Decorating Contest. The contest will focus on exterior decorations and lights of both homes and businesses during the month of December 2011. The following three decorative categories will be judged:

1. Colonial decorations – this theme will include, but not be limited to such things as window candles, garland and wreaths with ribbons, fruits, or berries, and appropriate lights.

2. Modern decorations – this theme can include but not be limited to lighted and/or inflated characters and appropriate lights.

3. Business decorations – this theme is wide open and left to the creative imagination of the business decorating team.

First place winners will receive a $200 prize, second place winners will receive a $100 prize, and third place winners will receive a $50 prize. The contest will start the day of the annual Aberdeen Christmas Street Parade and run through December 29. All participating homes and businesses are to be fully lit from 6 pm to 9:30 pm each day. Judging will begin the day of the annual parade on Saturday evening at 6:30 p.m. Judging results will be available not later than the following Saturday. To be considered for judging, completion of a brief application will be required and these will be made available at City Hall, 60 N. Parke Street or use the one provided to the left of this article. Only the street addresses will be given to the judges and the addresses will be provided to Aberdeen citizens and visitors so they can travel around town to witness the festive decorations. Winners will be notified before December 20 and presented with their prize money at an Aberdeen City Council meeting.