December 19, 2014 at 4:06 p.m.
Library throws old-fashioned Christmas party for kids
Library throws old-fashioned Christmas party for kids
By Kayla Thomason-
The families packed the room and sang along to traditional Christmas songs such as "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer," "O Come All Ye Faithful," and "We Wish You a Merry Christmas," among others.
"We try to pick mostly [songs] we know the kids will know and be able to sing along with," said associate librarian Denise Chojnacki.
Some of the songs had actions that the children would perform when it was the right time. Children as young as two jumped in and mimicked the others' movements.
Sprinkled in between some of the songs were holiday-themed riddles and a story.
The children enjoyed "Pete the Cat Saves Christmas," by Eric Litwin and illustrated by James Dean, and "Twas the Night Before Christmas."
"The 'Pete the Cat' series has become really, really popular in the last couple of years so when we saw this story - and it had the song to go with it - it was just perfect," Chojnacki said.
The songs and stories were a hit with many in the audience.
"This was nice," Dollie Trainer said. "My grandchildren enjoyed the songs and story."
Trainer is the grandmother of Garret and Jaylee Weyhrauch, ages 6 and 9.
What many of the children really liked was making crafts. This year it was reindeer bags, which were filled with popcorn before the children left.
"I like the crafts, I like the colors, it is pretty good being here and it is pretty fun and I like it very much," Garrett added.
He was happy to get popcorn but was sad for his sister because she has braces and couldn't eat it.
"I like doing [the crafts]," Jaylee said. "It's fun making a reindeer bag, it's really nice."
The creative bags were fun for older children as well.
This was the first time Nevaeh Forster, 11, participated in the Christmas party.
"I hope [the reindeer bags] turn out cool," she said.
The Old-fashioned Christmas Party wasn't a letdown for returning participants either.
"[My children, Morgan and Max], were very excited to come back," Nicole Cahee said. "Both of them like doing crafts so that's the part they look forward to the most."
Cahee's daughter is 5 years old and her son is 2 years old.
The adults said they liked that the event was held on a shortened school day.
"This is a nice function for them, you know when they get an early out for school, and [it is] a nice place for them to go," Trainer said. "They enjoy it, they look forward to it."
"It's a lot of fun and we enjoy just being able to go out and do something on an early-release day and the kids look forward to all the Christmas activities," Cahee said.
This was the first time the library held the Christmas party on an early-release day, and with such positive attendance they may hold more events on days like that.
Chojnacki said it was the biggest group yet.
"I'm just completely thrilled at the turnout I didn't expect quite this much," Chojnacki said. "The community seems to really like it. I remember the first year we had it one of the guys said 'This made me think of Christmases when I was a kid' and he just loved it so that's why we kept going."
Even some of the children recognized the party had high attendance.
"It was a really good turnout, there's a lot of people here," Jaylee said.
Staff designed the Old-Fashioned Christmas Party by incorporating some of their favorite aspects of the seasons.
"We wanted to do a Christmas party but we wanted to kind of do it with a theme like back when we were kids, what things we enjoyed and we thought maybe the kids would get a kick out of it too," Chojnacki said.
Kayla Breese may be reached at [email protected].
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