Library Christmas event
There is no big Christmas event in Bella Vista, Bailey Kinsner said. There are church bazaars that happen early and some Christmas music shows. So Kinsner and the rest of the staff at the Bella Vista Library decided to create an event for the whole city.
After a year of planning, Christmas at Dickens Place happens on Friday, Dec. 8, from 4 to 8 p.m.
The event will take place both inside and outside the library, with a hayride bringing people up and down the hill from the Bella Vista Baptist Church parking lot.
There are about 25 vendors coming, and they will have everything from jewelry to handmade doll clothes. It will be a chance to do some Christmas shopping. For the difficult to shop for, the Library Foundation will be on hand to sell bricks for the new addition. The bricks will eventually be part of a walkway and can be inscribed with a name. Also, the used bookstore, Encore Books, will be open.
“There’s something for everyone,” she promised.
There will be three food trucks with wood-fired pizza, barbecue and desserts. Kettle corn will also be available.
About six different choirs and musical groups will be entertaining. Some will be wearing Dickens’s era costumes, children’s librarian Ellen Farwell said.
Over the years, the library has received donations of numerous miniature Christmas villages that will be on display along with all the Christmas trees the library have received.
“It will just be Christmas all over,” Kinsner said.
A special guest — Santa Claus — will be on hand for photo opportunities and to personally receive Christmas lists.
Kinsner and the rest of the library staff plan to make Christmas at Dickens’s Place an annual event.