Christmas dinner offered today at Multicultural Centre
Still hoping for that traditional “white Christmas?” Southern Albertans can’t always rely on the weather forecasts. But there are some signs of Christmas we can count on as the festive season nears.
One, served up for 19 years now, is the all-invited Christmas dinner offered by the Southern Alberta Ethnic Association. That’s today, from 3 to 6 p.m. at the Multicultural Centre on 6 Avenue South, obviously on a first-come basis.
••• Another Lethbridge tradition is the annual Festival of Nativities, presented at the LDS chapel next to the Enmax Centre. More than 550 versions are on view this year, from wood carvings to Lego. Doors are open today from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., and again Sunday from 2 to 8 p.m.; there’s no charge.
••• At city hall, the final week of seasonal noon-hour concerts will begin Monday with a choir and handbells from Galbraith School, followed Tuesday by the Con
Moto Singers from the NordBridge seniors. Wrapping up the series at noon on Wednesday will be the handbell ensemble from Gilbert Paterson School. ••• Next Thursday, the Sweet Breath Women’s Ensemble will present “Songs to Light the Night” — a candle-lit winter solstice concert in the Buchanan Chapel at Southminster United Church. Two performances are planned, 8:30 and 10 p.m., with tickets available at the door.
••• And right on cue, New West Theatre launches its holiday show, “Starlight,” on Tuesday in the media centre at Chinook High. A spirited mix of hits from the 1960s, ’70s and up, along with a topping of New West humour, it will run Tuesday through Saturday until Jan. 6 at 7:30 p.m. — plus four matinee performances. Check www.newwesttheatre.com/tickets for seats and prices.
New West’s show for younger audiences, “Hansel and Gretel,” will offer seven daytime performances at Casa, starting on Boxing Day, with details on the same website. •••
Time for some kudos, and reluctant farewells.
Congratulations to former Red Crow College and University of Lethbridge instructor
Karen Crowshoe, newly appointed as a judge in the Provincial Court of Alberta. Among her many community contributions is her work with the Piikani Youth and Education Foundation.
Congrats also to Keith Ginter, Feras Nasser and
others at “thirdstream,” a leading-edge Lethbridge business that was selected by Coast Capital Savings — reportedly Canada’s largest credit union, by membership — to provide its new digital membership-opening platform. It’s powered by “cumulus,” described as “an omni-channel solution developed by thirsdstream,” and credit union president Don Coulter is calling thirdstream “a true Canadian success story.”
••• So sad to see the Ten
Thousand Villages store in Lethbridge closing, after decades of volunteer help from members of local Mennonite congregations and ongoing support from many southern Albertans and congregations from many backgrounds.
We’ll also miss Esquire’s coffee house, one of the very first businesses in town to offer internet and email access on a drop-in basis. And soon we’ll be losing
Sears, a part of the city's retail scene since the early days at Centre Village Mall. Do you think the Hudson’s
Bay — which opened here in the early part of the last century — should relocate into the Park Place anchor position?
••• Before taking our seasonal break — back with you on Jan. 6 — let’s look ahead for some highlights early in the new year. Selections from the recent Banff Film
Festival will be screened Jan. 8 to 13 in the library’s Theatre Gallery, with advance tickets available now at the library. It’s the 15th year for the Lethbridge presentations, bringing some of the excitement and magic of our mountains into a much warmer setting.
••• Five of this year’s best-received “Summer Family Fun” activities are coming inside as well. Originally held in Fort Whoop-Up, the two-hour programs will be offered Jan. 2 to 6, from 1 to 3 p.m. in the Galt Museum. The hands-on events — presented with support from the Green Acres Kiwanis Club — will look at paper airplanes, sock puppets, watercolour painting, felted soap and then paper mosaics. Call the Galt — 403-320-3898 — for more details. ••• A little further ahead, the New Media folks at the University of Lethbridge will resume their no-charge film series at the downtown library on Jan. 17 with “Cameraperson” and follow that up Jan. 24 with “Labyrinth.” The university’s no-charge Tuesday noon-hour concerts on campus will return Jan. 23. Then on Feb. 2 and 3, the university’s Opera Workshop and the Lethbridge Symphony Orchestra will stage “Vienna, City of Dreams.”
And there’s a little mystery about the drama department's next mainstage project. Well not really, it’s that Agatha Christie classic, “The Mousetrap” and it’s scheduled for Feb. 13 to 17.