St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church
Laytonsville, Maryland

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Last year's Festival was a wonderful success for our church community. The funds went toward more improvements in the undercroft, including the carpet and upgraded bathrooms. (We plan to announce our next project in an upcoming bulletin.) It was great that so many members of the parish were involved in the Festival. We are looking forward to another great festival and invite all parishioners to participate in St Bartholomew's 33rd Christmas Festival. We'll have a display Homecoming Sunday or give us a call to see how you can get involved.

The Christmas Festival is on November 30 and December 1, 2007 and we've been busy with preparations. We have a nice selection of new crafts from our workdays. The Festival includes many of the same activities as in past years, including crafts, baked goods, café serving lunch and dinner, white elephant sale, silent auction gift baskets, live Christmas wreaths, Holy Chocolate and Bishops Blend sales and the raffle of a quilt. We will have outside crafters again, with returnees Mike Vore and his woodwork plus his new stained glass work, Meredith McEver with her pottery and Rosey Poole with her jewelry.

We have several workdays scheduled in the next few months to continue sewing, painting and crafting. Dates are Sept. 11, Oct. 9 and Nov. 13 and Nov. 27 from 10 am to 1 pm; Sept. 25, Oct. 23 and Nov. 27 from 6 pm to 9 pm; so mark your calendars. All parishioners are invited to join us. Remember - no special skills needed; just enthusiasm. Questions, call Sonja or Morna about the day group or Nancy Willett (301-253-2673) about the evening group. Everyone in the parish has special skills, so even if you can't join us at the workdays, consider making something for the festival. We particularly need decorative painters and wood crafters.

If you have any questions about the Festival or want to get involved, give the church office a call. We'd love for you to help.

Quilt Raffle Tickets

Raffle Quilt. A hand-crafted quilt was made by Nancy Willett and quilted by Episcopalian Beth Smith. The quilt will be raffled off during the Christmas Festival. This is a wonderful opportunity to get a beautiful warm quilt good for hanging or to cuddle under.

Christmas Wreaths and Garlands

Who wants to be thinking about snow and holiday shopping when it's still hot outside? When it comes to St. Bartholomew's tradition of wreaths at the Christmas Festival, a little forward thinking pays off. We just can't ask our favorite North Woods Guy to pile on an extra 120 wreaths when he goes to clear the snow. The balsam wreaths we sell are 25 inches in diameter, come fully decorated, individually bagged and are reasonably priced at $22.

For 2007, the Festival Committee is expanding its product line to include 25' foot lengths of balsam fir garland, priced at $28. We really need your help selling the wreaths and the garland. Consider making copies of the order form and distributing them in your neighborhood and at the office. We'll have extra order forms in the back of the church or you can print one from the Web site. The wreaths also make a great gift or thank you to relatives, neighbors and friends. Pre-ordering is required and your deadline for ordering is Oct. 25.

Holy Chocolate and Bishops Blend Coffee

We found the addition of the sales of Holy Chocolate and Bishops Blend coffee to be worthwhile and are offering them again. Prices are $11 for the can of hot chocolate mix and $11 for the bag of coffee. Both are available in a variety of flavors. Not only are they delicious for your own personal use, but they make great gifts. If you need a hostess gift or gifts for people in the office, either is perfect. We do need to pre-order both, and the deadline is Oct. 25.

Silent Auction Gift Baskets

This year we will have six large gift baskets to be sold at silent auction. In addition, we will have six smaller basket that will also be sold this year. Each basket will have a theme, and parishioners are invited to donate new items to fill these baskets. The baskets will then be sold through a silent auction at the Festival. Jamie Kaufmann is coordinating Gift Baskets for the Christmas Festival.

The six themes for the small baskets are:

• Wine & Cheese
• Teen Time, fun items for ages 12-17)
• Kitchen Implements
• Literature & Travel
• Fun & Games, fun items for ages 4-11
• Family Fun

The six themed large baskets are:

• Picnics (Collection beginning in September)
• Pamper Yourself/Sports (Collection beginning in September)
• Entertaining (Collection beginning in October)
• Seasons and Holidays (Collection beginning in October)
• Christmas (Collection beginning in November)
• Winter Wonderland (Collection beginning in November)
  

White Elephant Sale

Did you put some of that unseasonably cooler weather last month to use cleaning out the garage and attic? If you did, don't toss those treasures; save them for the St. Bart's ever popular White Elephant sale at the Festival. More information to come.

Bake Sale

Everyone rallied to make plenty of baked goods last year, so keep up the effort. Make an extra loaf of bread, cake or batch of cookies and freeze it. Note: We need to be in compliance with the county Department of Health and Human Services requirements. You must provide us with a list of ingredients that went into your baked goods. We don't need the actual recipe, just a list of ingredients. And, if you use a mix, just provide the name of the mix. Additionally, we cannot offer for sale any items made with cream fillings.