Two candlelight services

The New Gloucester Bible Church, Route 100, New Gloucester, will be hosting a Christmas Eve candlelight service on Friday, Dec. 24, at 7 p.m. All are welcome! For more information, call 926-3140.

The First Congregational Church, 19 Gloucester Hill Road, will be holding a Christmas Eve candlelight service on Friday, Dec. 24, at 7 p.m., which is open to all. For more information, call 926-3260.

Santa’s annual rounds

Santa will be making his annual rounds for New Gloucester residents on Christmas Eve again this year. He will be at Thompson’s Orchard at 4:30 p.m. Upon leaving Thompson’s, he will continue down Gloucester Hill Road toward Lower Corner where he will stop at the Town Hall.

He will then move along Intervale Road to Upper Gloucester and stop at the Upper Corner Christmas tree. From there he will go up Peacock Hill Road and back to Upper Corner before continuing down Bald Hill Road and onto Snow Hill Road. He will end his route at the turnpike bridge on Snow Hill Road.

People are encouraged to pre-arrange presents that are to be given out at Thompson’s and along Santa’s route. Presents can be dropped off at the Emery household starting on Saturday, Dec. 18, to Friday, Dec. 24, at noon, which is the deadline.

If you need more information about pre-arranging or anything else connected with the New Gloucester Santa, call Deb Emery at 926-4458. If no answer, please be sure to leave a message with your name and number.

Santa’s visit is funded by donations. There are cans at the local stores, Marios and Thompson’s Orchard. Donations can also be mailed to: New Gloucester Santa, P.O. Box 204, New Gloucester, ME 04260.

World premiere

New Gloucester Television (NGTV) Channel 3, the local cable access station, will be premiering its new production “Master Class Performance,” taped at the 1794 Shaker Meeting House, at 7 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 17. String quartets comprised of talented amateur musicians performed after a day of workshops with Portland String Quartet members as their coaches.

Rebroadcasts of the 51-minute program will occur on Dec. 18-19, Dec. 24-26, and Dec. 31-Jan. 2 at 7 p.m. The New Gloucester Public Library will have copies of the DVD available, so those who don’t subscribe to cable television won’t miss out.

True Christmas spirit

It’s not too late to make a monetary donation to the Caring Community of Gray-New Gloucester to enable a neighbor in need to celebrate the holiday season. Make your check payable to CCGNG and sent it to Donna Rand, 5A Doughty Farm Road, Gray, ME 04039.

Shaker Village 2011 calendar

The Shaker Museum has created a Shaker Village wall calendar for 2011. The calendar is a series of black and white aerial photos of the village that show the village panoramically and up close.

The photos were taken by Carol Robison in the winter of 2001 and now have been gathered together to show the village as it appeared “At the Turn of the Century,” the title of the calendar. The winter scenes show the village in great detail.

To order the calendar, send $13.95 (includes calendar and shipping) to: Shaker Museum, 707 Shaker Road, New Gloucester, ME 04260.

New state representative

Ellie Espling from New Gloucester is the new state representative for House District 105, which is comprised of New Gloucester, Durham and part of Lisbon. She is planning to send out regular e-mail updates within a few weeks and invites those who are interested in receiving the updates to send a request.

To sign up for the updates and/or to send her a correspondence regarding state matters, contact Espling at 926-6082 (home phone) or e-mail [email protected].

Holiday schedule

All town facilities will close at noon on Thursday, Dec. 23, for an employee holiday luncheon. Additionally, all town facilities will be closed on Dec. 24, Dec. 25, Dec. 31 and Jan. 1 for Christmas and New Year’s.