NEW LONDON — There was hope that this holiday season would be different.
After a subdued 2020 that saw holiday craft fairs and in-person celebrations being canceled or scaled back, a lull in cases this summer appeared to herald a new phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. Organizations started planning in-person fairs and townwide celebrations. Then the delta variant appeared, cases started to rise again and organizers started to think about how they could still safely put on events, including ones involving one of the season’s star attractions: Santa Claus.
“You don’t want the kids to go without during the season. You can do something, but you can be safe about it,” said Ashlee Rowley, executive director of the Lake Sunapee Region Chamber of Commerce. “You can have everyone outside and give them the space to socially distance or connect virtually.”
That’s exactly what the chamber is doing with its “New London Under the Stars!” event at the gazebo at the New London Town Green from 6 to 8 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 11. Santa will arrive at the gazebo at 6:30 p.m., light the tree and stick around to take socially distanced photos with families before reading the version of The Night Before Christmas illustrated by the late Tomie dePaola, which can be streamed on Facebook Live.
Families will sit on the gazebo’s steps while Santa sits a safe distance behind them near the tree. That’s a change from last year, when Rowley lit the tree during a Facebook Live event and around 25 people gathered to sing Christmas carols.
“We didn’t really do very much Santa-oriented activity last year,” Rowley said. There was a mailbox for children to mail letters to Santa and they would receive a reply. That started before the pandemic and will continue this year.
While planning this year’s event, the chamber and the New London Recreation Department were originally thinking about providing cookies and hot cocoa. Right before Thanksgiving, the decision was made to streamline the event and keep it outside only.
“In reality, with COVID cases being so high, we’re trying to be as careful as possible,” Rowley said. “We want to make sure we’re doing our due diligence; even though we’re offering an event, we’re doing what we can to make sure it’s as safe as possible.”
This Saturday, Dec. 4, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Santa will be touring neighborhoods in Lebanon and West Lebanon before the Lebanon Recreation, Arts & Parks Department’s ’Tis the Season Lebanon’s Downtown Winter Celebration. The full route can be found at lebanonnh.gov/1449/Santas-Tour.
There have also been a mix of cancellations and adjustments beyond St. Nick’s schedule. A craft fair scheduled to take place on Saturday at Stevens High School in Claremont was canceled due to rising COVID-19 rates in Sullivan County.
The Thompson Senior Center in Woodstock canceled its Saturday Holiday Bazaar and Cookie Sale due to a staff COVID exposure, according to an announcement from the center. It is “also temporarily closed for in-person meals and activities,” but home-delivered meals, transportation and Aging at Home support programs will continue. Other craft fairs have gone ahead as planned, with masks encouraged or required.
Some holiday concerts, like those taking place as part of Woodstock’s Wassail Weekend, which can draw hundreds of people to town, will take place as planned.
“All of those people need to show their vaccination cards, but they’re all at this moment still happening,” said Beth Finlayson, executive director of the Woodstock Chamber of Commerce.
The annual parade, which was scaled back last year, will also take place and vendors will be set up on the village green.
“We’re planning to just move forward,” Finlayson said.
Holiday concerts are also moving forward, albeit in different formats than years past. Students at Bradford (Vt.) Elementary School will perform two winter concerts on the lawn at Bradford Academy next week. The kindergarten and first-grade classes will perform at 6 p.m. Wednesday and students in grades two and three along with the school band will perform at 6 p.m. Thursday.
In Newport, The Area Choir will perform “An Outdoor Concert of Christmas Selections and Carols” from 3 to 4 p.m. Sunday at the Meadow Park picnic pavilion on Meadow Road. The car-based event is a 20-minute concert put on three times back to back, to keep drivers flowing and prevent them from sitting too long with idling engines. The 17 members of the choir will perform using headphones and microphones, and the audience can listen to the performance in their cars by tuning into FM 93.1. There will be room to park or people can drive through.
“Last year we couldn’t have the concert at all,” said Karen Little, chair of The Area Choir board, which is in its 68th year. “Everything was canceled.”
Instead, they put together a program of performances recorded from past years and it was broadcast on YCN Now. This year, the choir hoped to return to performing indoors at the South Congregational Church, but increasing COVID-19 case numbers this fall made them reconsider and look for other options.
“Everyone has a different comfort level with how and under what circumstances they’re willing to be in a building to hear a choir,” Little said. “This way we’re outside and it really doesn’t matter if you’re masked or unmasked, you’re in your car.”
The group will also perform at the pavilion from 1 to 3 p.m. next Saturday during the Newport Chamber of Commerce’s ’Twas Just Before Christmas event and the New Hampshire Troubadours’ “Do You Hear What I Hear?” concert at the Claremont Opera House at 3 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 19.
Liz Sauchelli can be reached at esauchelli@vnews.com or 603-727-3221.
