The holiday season has arrived. Families and friends are getting ready to share Thanksgiving day. The parades in New York and Philadelphia welcome folks from near and far. Santa Claus has arrived at the malls and shopping areas and everywhere you go, colorful lights and decorations have given towns and cities a festive look.

The Ancient Oak Women's Organization meets at St. Paul's Church, Trexlertown Road, Trexlertown 7:30 p.m. Dec. 3. There will be a re-gift exchange (do not wrap) and cookie exchange. Members are asked to bring six dozen cookies. Donations will be collected from each member. The total will be matched by a donation from the treasury for needy people in Ancient Oak. AOWO members wish everyone a happy holiday.

Lower Macungie Senior Citizens meet at the community center on Brookside Road noon Dec. 2 and 16. Games and bingo are played after a short business meeting.

Call Doris at 610-966-3653 for information about the Dec. 18 trip to the Dutch Apple Theatre.

The choir of Zion Lehigh Lutheran Church, 8269 Spring Creek Road, Alburtis, will present a Christmas cantata "Were You There That Christmas Night" 10:30 a.m. Dec. 7 during the worship service. The community is invited to celebrate the season. Coffee hour will follow the service.

Dec. 7 is also the holiday festival in Alburtis. Have breakfast with Santa at the community center starting 8 a.m. Take a horse-drawn carriage ride around town, get your pet's picture taken with Santa. Enjoy the Emmaus High School a capella singers, good food, lots of fun.

The kind of old-fashioned Alburtis Christmas celebration remembered as a treasured holiday community tradition will return to Lock Ridge Church 7 p.m. Dec. 14. From the 1980s to the turn of the 21st Century, the pageants of old had been organized by the late Jean Stoneback, a local historian and East Penn Press columnist whose "Kitchen Window" ran for almost 40 years. Stoneback's daughters, Hope Stoneback DeIaco and Faith Stoneback Andrews, are reviving the tradition in the spirit of their mother, drawing largely on the talents of the Alburtis Camp Fire group.

The program will feature music and reinterpretation of the Dickens' classic "A Christmas Carol" with a Bethlehem setting. Pennsylvania Dutch heritage will be saluted with a recitation of "The Night Before Christmas" in the dialect, presented by Fred Fritch. Fritch will also guide the audience in singing three carols in Pennsylvania Dutch. The event will conclude with a children's sing out of "Let It Go" from the popular Disney movie, "Frozen." A free will offering will be collected to fund Christmas dinner for local needy families. Canned or packaged food can be contributed as well. The church is located at the corner of Church and Franklin streets in Alburtis. For more information, contact DeIaco at 610-966-4663

The December news is due Dec. 15.