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Christmas

Vanderbilt Museum seeks donation of tree for the holidays

by Heidi Sutton - November 7, 2020

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Vanderbilt holiday tree — Photo from Vanderbilt Museum

The Suffolk County Vanderbilt Museum in Centerport is looking once again for a local family that can donate one of its own trees for this year’s Tree Lighting celebration. It must be local, from family property, and from 30 to 35 feet tall. Last year, a Centereach family donated a 40-foot tree that 30 years earlier had been a live spruce purchased as the family’s first Christmas tree.

Since 1987, the Vanderbilt has placed a very large tree in the Mansion Courtyard and decorated it for the holidays. Every year, the Museum has invited the community to join the staff on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, to light the tree and inaugurate the holiday season. This very popular community event draws several hundred people every year. (This year, to allow for social distancing, the tree will be set up on the Great Lawn of the Vanderbilt Mansion.)

The donor will be acknowledged on a sign next to the tree, and the donation will be publicized to the media, along with other Museum holiday events and programs. Anyone who is interested may contact Jim Munson, the Vanderbilt Museum’s operations supervisor: [email protected].

PJS/Terryville Chamber Celebrates Christmas in Lights

by Kyle Barr - December 11, 2019

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Untitled (2) — Port Jefferson Station/Terryville Chamber of Commerce celebrates its tree-lighting ceremony Dec. 7. Photos by Joan Nickeson

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The Port Jefferson Station/Terryville Chamber of Commerce opened the holiday season Dec. 7 with its annual tree-lighting ceremony outside the chamber-owned train car at the corner of Routes 347 and 112.

Chamber leaders were joined by Suffolk County Legislator Kara Hahn (D-Setauket), not to mention Santa Claus himself. Members of the PJ Station-based School of Rock and Backstage Studio of Dance were available for live entertainment. Refreshments were served by Buttercup’s Dairy Store and Colonial Coffee.

The next night, Dec. 8, the chamber started its annual Polar Express Experience nights, allowing young people to watch “The Polar Express” inside the chamber’s train car, where they were served a candy cane, cookies and hot cocoa.

The chamber is hosting additional Polar Express experiences Saturday and Sunday through December.

24th Dickens Festival Brings Classic Cheer for All to Hear

by Kyle Barr - December 9, 2019

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A silent night Dec. 6 opened up the weekend with Port Jefferson Village’s annual lantern dedications, but as night turned to day, Port Jeff was suddenly filled with characters straight out of a classic 19^th century Dickens Classic. For the 24^th year in a row, the village was suffused with the sights and sounds of Christmas spirit during the annual Charles Dickens Festival.

Volunteers acted scenes from A Christmas Carole and other Dickens books, such as a live, local musical version of Oliver Twist. Visitors could visit the Village Center for ice skating, the festival of trees or a live reading of A Christmas Carol. A constant supply of marshmallows were up for grabs to roast over a fire, and businesses all shared Christmas and Dickens themed dinners and specials. Over at Theatre Three, A Christmas Carol was acted out Friday through Sunday, and is going on all the way until Dec. 28.

Brookhaven Fire Marshal Demonstrates Christmas Tree Safety

by Kyle Barr - December 6, 2019

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Silent night in Port Jeff

by Kyle Barr - December 25, 2018

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When the calm of the cold settles on visitors to the Village of Port Jefferson, all find reason to seek comfort indoors. Despite it, the village is illuminated in swathes of light all the way from West Broadway to East Broadway, down East Main Street and up Main Street. Here is just a selection of pictures displaying the serenity of the cold night, when the lights dance in the street and in the eyes of people behind the window panes of Port Jeff.

Plain Talk: Capturing the magic of the holiday season

by Father Francis Pizzarelli - December 21, 2018

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By Fr. Francis Pizzarelli

The Christmas season is upon us. The village of Port Jefferson is decked out with lights and wreaths — there is definitely a spirit of Christmas in the air.

The world is a crazy place. The violence and hate has become infectious, but the reason for the season has taken a hold of us once again in a number of places. People are reaching out and bridging differences.

One such instance is Christmas Magic, an event that magically touches hearts old and young alike with the spirit of giving, sharing and serving others. Started more than 25 years ago by a young attorney who wanted his children to understand the real meaning of Christmas, his act of kindness and generosity has touched thousands of people across our county every Christmas season.

Hundreds of caring high school students to college students, from youth programs and church communities sacrifice their time and reach out to thousands of children living in our shelters during the holiday season.

Close to 3,000 people gathered at Carnegie Hall on the second Monday in December this year for a Christmas concert. The headliners were powerful: Andy Cooney and his band, the Hibernian Festival Singers, the Irish Tenors, the New York Tenors and eight young men who have become a band of brothers supported by an extraordinary female voice that makes the H.I.M.S. and Her such an extraordinary musical talent.

This band of brothers are young men who are broken and wounded, from all over, trying to reclaim their lives while living in a long-term nontraditional treatment program for addictions. The story of these men is a story of powerful change and transformation. Their performance at Carnegie Hall brought that packed house of concertgoers to their feet. It was a night of inspiration to remember.

A few days before their performance at Carnegie Hall these gifted and talented men volunteered to sing Christmas carols at the retirement home for the Dominican Sisters at their motherhouse in Amityville. I started to visit these sisters every Advent because I’m a product of Dominican education. In my junior high school years, I was profoundly influenced by three very dynamic women of faith. This has been my simple way of saying thank you.

After serving the church in a variety of leadership roles for more than 50 years, my former eighth-grade teacher took a job at Pax Christi, an emergency men’s shelter in Port Jefferson. She began working five days a week until she was 85 years old cleaning toilets, making beds and bringing hope to countless men who thought their lives were hopeless.

Today Sr. Beata is in her mid-90s. She is still as sharp as can be but has a difficult time getting around. The sisters she lives with range in age from their mid-70s to 107 years old.

After caroling that Saturday morning, the young men walked among these extraordinary women hugging and kissing them; the room was aglow. The sister who is 107 years old came over to me to thank me for bringing these young men. She said it was her greatest Christmas present. All her family has died and her friends as well. She has no visitors. After one of the young men hugged her she started to cry. She hadn’t been hugged in over a year and she said thank you for helping her feel alive again.

As we drove home, these men on the road to recovery and wellness were on fire — not realizing how in their brokenness with their simple carols they brought so much joy to a community of women who were such a source of hope and light for so many generations.

Christmas seems to be that time of year to remind each other of the profound goodness that lives within each of us and to be conscious that each one of us has the power to make a difference that really does count.

Merry Christmas!

Fr. Pizzarelli, SMM, LCSW-R, ACSW, DCSW, is the director of Hope House Ministries in Port Jefferson.

Christmas Presepio on display in Setauket

by Heidi Sutton - December 18, 2018

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Presepio2016_Menorah_DonnaNewman — Photo by Donna Newman

St. James R.C. Church, 429 Route 25A, Setauket invites the community to experience the beauty and wonder of its traditional Neopolitan Nativity scenes, courtesy of Rev. Gerald Cestare, every day through Jan. 13 from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. (except Christmas Eve/Day and New Year’s Eve).

Celebrating its 30th anniversary, this year’s display, located once again in the Parish Center, contains thousands of figures, buildings and miniatures; even if you have seen this display in the past, there is always something new! Fr. Jerry invites everyone to share in this wonderful depiction of the true gift of Christmas, a tradition handed down to him from his grandfather. Free event. Call 631-941-4141.

Cooking Cove: Christmas cookie classics endure for generations

by Barbara Beltrami - December 16, 2018

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By Barbara Beltrami

What kind of a food columnist would I be if I didn’t write about Christmas cookies every December? And what kind of a Scrooge would you be if you didn’t bake or at least intend to bake Christmas cookies every year? There are times when tradition rules, when you do certain things because you’ve always done them, because your mother and before that your grandmother have always done them and to not do them would be sacrilege. And there is nothing like gathering the kids in the kitchen and making it a tradition that they’ll carry on when it’s their turn.

So here are some uber traditional Christmas cookie recipes — three different versions — cut, pressed and dropped — of the sugar cookie. I have no idea where or when they originated. I just know they’ve been the go-to recipes in our family for years and years. All are wonderful on their own, particularly when surreptitiously snatched from the voluptuously mounded cookie platter, and they all go well with tea, coffee, milk, hot chocolate, eggnog or any holiday spirits.

Spritz Cookies (Pressed)

YIELD: Makes about 6 dozen

INGREDIENTS:

2 sticks room temperature unsalted butter

²/3 cup sugar

3 egg yolks

1 teaspoon vanilla or almond extract

2½ cups flour

DIRECTIONS:

Heat oven to 400 F. In a large bowl thoroughly combine butter, sugar, egg yolks and extract. Add flour and work in. Divide dough into quarters and place one quarter at a time into cookie press; using desired shapes, force dough onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake 7 to 10 minutes until set but not brown. Cool on wire rack 30 minutes and decorate as desired.

Drop Sugar Cookies

YIELD: Makes about 3 dozen

INGREDIENTS:

2 eggs, beaten

²/3 cup vegetable oil

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 teaspoon grated lemon zest (optional)

¾ cup sugar

2 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon coarse salt

DIRECTIONS:

Heat oven to 400 F. In large bowl, thoroughly combine eggs, oil, vanilla and lemon zest (if using); gradually add sugar and beat until mixture thickens. In another bowl, blend flour, baking powder and salt and incorporate mixture into first one. Drop by teaspoonfuls 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheet, flatten each mound with bottom of glass dipped in sugar. Bake 8 to 10 minutes. Cool immediately on wire rack. Decorate as desired.

Classic Sugar Cookie Cut Outs

YIELD: Makes 4 to 5 dozen

INGREDIENTS:

1½ cups confectioners’ sugar

2 sticks unsalted butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

½ teaspoon almond extract

1 egg

2½ cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cream of tartar

DIRECTIONS:

In a large bowl thoroughly combine sugar, butter, vanilla and almond extracts and egg. In another bowl, combine flour, baking soda and cream of tartar; then stir that mixture into first one. Cover and refrigerate 4 hours or more.

Heat oven to 375 F. Divide dough in half and roll out each half to ¼-inch thick on lightly floured cloth-covered surface. Cut cookies and place on ungreased cookie sheets and bake 7 to 8 minutes until light brown. Cool on rack 30 minutes, then decorate as desired.

Gather unused dough into a ball and refrigerate or place in freezer to chill; then repeat roll out procedure.

Between You and Me: Yes, Virginia, even New Jersey has a Santa Claus

by Leah Dunaief - December 5, 2018

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mikolaj-czytajacy-list-325322-article — Stock photo

By Leah Dunaief

Leah Dunaief

The conversation in a New Jersey classroom of first-graders got around to the subject of Christmas, and the substitute teacher unleashed a bombshell. She told them that Santa isn’t real, that parents just buy presents and put them under a tree. On a roll, she didn’t stop there. Reindeer can’t fly, she advised the students, elves are not real, the elf on the shelf is just a doll that parents move around, there is no tooth fairy and no Easter bunny, either. She summed up with the news that there is no magic anything and that magic doesn’t exist. Whoa!

This made the top of the news earlier this week for CBS, NBC, Fox, USA Today and other major news outlets. No one, as far as I know, has interviewed the children to get their reactions, but the school superintendent and the principal were moved to speak, as the district apologized to the parents.

Montville superintendent of schools, Rene Rovtar, was “troubled and disheartened by the incident.” Cedar Hill Elementary School principal, Michael Raj, sent home a message to the parents in which he mentioned the “poor judgment” of the teacher and asked parents to “take appropriate steps to maintain the childhood innocence of the holiday season.” At least one parent, Lisa Simek, took to Facebook, expressing dismay. She urged that Christmas magic is real and expressed through acts of kindness, love, positivity and grace — from and for loved ones and strangers. The superintendent added, “The childhood wonder associated with all holidays and traditions is something I personally hold near and dear in my own heart.”

We don’t know how the children reacted, but we certainly know how upset the adults are. And we have not been told if the teacher will be allowed to substitute again. How should we react to this?

On the one hand, we know that the idea of Santa Claus brings joy and excitement to children and therefore to the adults around them. This is hardly innocence exploited by adults but rather an opportunity for adults each to be Santa, to be their best, most generous, most loving selves. While the person of Santa is a fiction, the embodiment of all that Santa stands for most surely is not. Fictional characters can provide inspiration for the lifetime of a child as he or she grows up. Intergenerational mythmaking exists in many contexts, not only to entertain but also to inspire.

Children sooner or later catch on, especially when they see 20 Santas walking down the street together on their return from their Salvation Army posts. But on the other hand, how do children feel when they realize the adults around them have told them untruths? If they go to school expecting to believe what they are taught there, should the teacher acquiesce in mythmaking? For sure, this teacher handled the situation with poor judgment. It would have been far better for her and the children had she told them to ask their parents about the magic of Santa. For whatever reason, she did not do that.

How did you feel when, as a child, you learned that Santa was a story made up by the adults closest to you? Did you understand the greater good embodied in the concept or were you left to distrust on some level whatever those adults might subsequently tell you? Does misleading a child bring psychological questions into play?

It did not negatively affect Virginia O’Hanlon, who asked that question of her father when she was 8 years old in 1897. She said the answer inspired her for the rest of her long life. Her dad told her to write to The Sun, a prominent New York City newspaper, and added, “If you see it in The Sun, it’s so.” The Sun’s hard-bitten, cynical editor, Francis Pharcellus Church, wrote the answer that turned into the most reprinted editorial over the next century in the English-speaking world: “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.”

23rd annual Dickens Festival strides into Port Jeff Village

by Kyle Barr - December 3, 2018

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Thousands of people were swept up in a wave of holiday cheer as the Port Jefferson Village played host to 23rd annual Charles Dickens Festival from Nov. 30 to Dec. 2.

A score of volunteers, all dressed up in mid-19th century garb including not a small amount of chimney soot, walked around the village shaking hands and singing carols as if straight out of Charles Dickens’ classic novel “A Christmas Carol.” Attendees had the opportunity to view the village’s festival of trees, make cookies and ornaments, participate in a gingerbread house contest, ice skate and watch several live music, theater and dance performances, all while walking through village streets with stores all dressed up in seasonal decorations.

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Christmas

Vanderbilt Museum seeks donation of tree for the holidays

PJS/Terryville Chamber Celebrates Christmas in Lights

24th Dickens Festival Brings Classic Cheer for All to Hear

Brookhaven Fire Marshal Demonstrates Christmas Tree Safety

Silent night in Port Jeff

Plain Talk: Capturing the magic of the holiday season

Christmas Presepio on display in Setauket

Cooking Cove: Christmas cookie classics endure for generations

Between You and Me: Yes, Virginia, even New Jersey has a Santa Claus

23rd annual Dickens Festival strides into Port Jeff Village

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