Tables and tables of cookies provided a wide choice of the delectable Christmas treats as people came to buy and have their children visit with Santa Claus at the Weisenberg-Lowhill Historical Society cookie sale.

But Santa was ill and had to stay at the North Pole so he would feel up to his Christmas Eve journey.

In the kitchen of the former Zimmerman's Hotel in Werleys Corner, more plates were being filled with cookies.

As a foster child at this reporter's home once said as he walked in from school, "This is cookie heaven."

Cindy Loch, who brought her grandsons to the Weisenberg-Lowhill Christmas event, said her mother and father came to the hotel to play cards during the period when she was 4 to 8 years old.

When she got tired, Florence, Sadie and Milton Zimmerman let her sleep on the sofa.

She said the society's shop and display rooms were one large room and she was afraid to go there. Besides, it was cold in the room. The men stood at the bar and the women sat at a table in the back room.

Debbie Zvanut finally found enough volunteers to work with the crafts for the children at the cookie sale.

Then the weather made everything "iffy," so she made kits and sent the crafts home to be made.

She bought a pack of 500 clothespins when the craft table was first set up and it was down to 50 with children using some each year.

The children could choose a candy cane or a clothes pin Santa or Rudolph and had a choice of the colors they wanted to use.

The children also got candy canes and at the cookie sale there were special cookies decorated as Santa ornaments which went to each child.

Helen Kressley said they made 150 of the cookie decorations.

They were also given to people who bought baked goods.

In addition to the cookies, there were fruitcakes, which were "good," not living up to the poor reputation of fruitcakes.

Soups, chicken and rice, hamburger and vegetable, and taco, were sold in quart containers so people could take home both lunch and dessert.