Lyn's note: Please feel free to send us any pictures you'd like included. If your photos are for sale, let us know and we will put them under that category. We have a special section for that purpose. If anyone would like to buy a print of any of Herbert's photos, all profits will be donated to one of the local non-profit organizations. Here is the link to this week's Pictures of the Week.
http://carefreeazbusinesses.com/pictures-of-the-week-121817.html
http://carefreeazbusinesses.com/pictures-of-the-week-121817.html
Photo by Linda Stewart
Here is your bonus round from Herbert. It's the night of the Christmas Festival fireworks.
http://aneyeonyouproduction.com/12917---carefree-christmas-fireworks.html
Here is your bonus round from Herbert. It's the night of the Christmas Festival fireworks.
http://aneyeonyouproduction.com/12917---carefree-christmas-fireworks.html
Photo by Herbert Hitchon
Town of Carefree Marketing newsletter
http://www.carefree.org/336/IN-THE-NEWS
CITYSunTimes link:
http://news.citysuntimes.com/
Lyn,
Carefree has been seeking many ways to continue to strengthen every aspect of the "Christmas in Carefree" Festival to help generate excitement in the event and to keep it fresh, thereby leading to increased visitation in Carefree’s downtown area during the entire Christmas Holiday Season.
Take visits of kids with Santa as one example:
- We have expanded Santa’s hours to include specified times on Saturdays and Sundays throughout the month of December. This has helped to produce a steady stream of families with kids showing up to see Santa - many with little girls in their Christmas dresses and little boys wearing their best shirt and a Christmas bow tie to wear - while they were having their photo taken with Santa. Mom and Dad, and grandparents, seem to love being in these photos as well.
- Another aspect which we are finding to be popular is to mail out letters from Santa to all of the kids who visit Santa and give us their name and address. An example of the letter we are mailing out this week to kids who visited Santa this past weekend (and left their name and address) is attached. We give them a brief update of what is happening up at the North Pole, and with this letter we are also including a small bag of uncooked oatmeal with glitter in it (which we identify as high energy food for the reindeers to eat) and ask the kids to put this out on Christmas Eve. We did this last year and the kids loved doing it.
Keep up the great work.
Best regards,
Les Peterson
Ho! Ho! Ho! . . . and a Merry Christmas to all of my Very Special Kids! Its only a few days now until Christmas Eve. All of our last minute preparations up here in the North Pole are now proceeding at a frantic pace. The reindeer are jumping and racing around their corral, nipping at one another because they are so eager to get started. The elves have now loaded all of your toys and presents - and those for all of the other good kids in the world as well - into my big sleigh. We are all now ready and eager for ourbig trip on Christmas Eve. I just know that you are going to love your presents.
The toys and other presents are stacked so high in my sleigh that they couldn’t fit entirely into my sack, and some of them have now fallen into all of the open areas throughout the sleigh. I hope we don’t have strong winds on Christmas Eve, which would most certainly impact landings and takeoffs from steep snow and ice covered rooftops.
Just to be on the safe side, my Reindeer and I have been making practice take-offs and landings from the most difficult rooftops we could find up here at the North Pole with my sleigh fully loaded. For two weeks now we have been practicing twice a night and everything should be just fine.
Every year I ask my Special Kids to help my Reindeer on Christmas Eve by putting out high energy food for them to eat. You can imagine how cold and hungry they get pulling my sleigh all night, landing on rooftops and then taking off again hundreds of times. You would be a big help to me if you would put out the packet of oats and glowin- the-dark sparkles included in with this letter. Merry Christmas!
Town of Carefree Marketing newsletter
http://www.carefree.org/336/IN-THE-NEWS
CITYSunTimes link:
http://news.citysuntimes.com/
Lyn,
Carefree has been seeking many ways to continue to strengthen every aspect of the "Christmas in Carefree" Festival to help generate excitement in the event and to keep it fresh, thereby leading to increased visitation in Carefree’s downtown area during the entire Christmas Holiday Season.
Take visits of kids with Santa as one example:
- We have expanded Santa’s hours to include specified times on Saturdays and Sundays throughout the month of December. This has helped to produce a steady stream of families with kids showing up to see Santa - many with little girls in their Christmas dresses and little boys wearing their best shirt and a Christmas bow tie to wear - while they were having their photo taken with Santa. Mom and Dad, and grandparents, seem to love being in these photos as well.
- Another aspect which we are finding to be popular is to mail out letters from Santa to all of the kids who visit Santa and give us their name and address. An example of the letter we are mailing out this week to kids who visited Santa this past weekend (and left their name and address) is attached. We give them a brief update of what is happening up at the North Pole, and with this letter we are also including a small bag of uncooked oatmeal with glitter in it (which we identify as high energy food for the reindeers to eat) and ask the kids to put this out on Christmas Eve. We did this last year and the kids loved doing it.
Keep up the great work.
Best regards,
Les Peterson
Ho! Ho! Ho! . . . and a Merry Christmas to all of my Very Special Kids! Its only a few days now until Christmas Eve. All of our last minute preparations up here in the North Pole are now proceeding at a frantic pace. The reindeer are jumping and racing around their corral, nipping at one another because they are so eager to get started. The elves have now loaded all of your toys and presents - and those for all of the other good kids in the world as well - into my big sleigh. We are all now ready and eager for ourbig trip on Christmas Eve. I just know that you are going to love your presents.
The toys and other presents are stacked so high in my sleigh that they couldn’t fit entirely into my sack, and some of them have now fallen into all of the open areas throughout the sleigh. I hope we don’t have strong winds on Christmas Eve, which would most certainly impact landings and takeoffs from steep snow and ice covered rooftops.
Just to be on the safe side, my Reindeer and I have been making practice take-offs and landings from the most difficult rooftops we could find up here at the North Pole with my sleigh fully loaded. For two weeks now we have been practicing twice a night and everything should be just fine.
Every year I ask my Special Kids to help my Reindeer on Christmas Eve by putting out high energy food for them to eat. You can imagine how cold and hungry they get pulling my sleigh all night, landing on rooftops and then taking off again hundreds of times. You would be a big help to me if you would put out the packet of oats and glowin- the-dark sparkles included in with this letter. Merry Christmas!
Lyn and Herbie,
These are spectacular!
Thank you, again.
Mayor Les Peterson
(Lyn's note: Herbert's photos of the Christmas Festival)
Santa is popular. Some guests come specifically to see Santa. The kids are all dressed up and looking good. Santa is a key ingredient to the program and cannot be there too much.
I spent a lot of time in the Garden over the past two weekends and can say with confidence we had lots of happy customers. Many told me so and I could see it.
Best regards,
John Crane
Thanks, Lyn, for the kind recognition of our involvement in the Carefree Christmas Festival. The credit for the idea really goes to, then Mayor, Ed Morgan who had heard Donna and I play, and asked us to perform a Christmas concert outside in the Carefree amphitheater. The first two concerts were in 2002 & 2003. We actually brought in a real Steinway concert grand piano and Theater organ on the stage there and invited the local school choirs to join which were a huge hit. You can’t imagine what playing a real piano outside in 300 - 400weather can do to the tuning. In 2004, we took our concert inside to the Carefree Resort opera house to solve that problem and accommodate more people, as attendance had grown to over 1,000. We also worked in other religious and secular songs of the season and, always, a special tribute to our veterans. The concerts continued there for, I think, 5 more years and Jo Gemmill built on that to create the incredibly successful Carefree Christmas Festival which exceeded all expectations. We are very happy to see our fine Mayor and Council Members continuing this great tradition and bringing our community together in this way. Look forward to seeing you there.
Lloyd Meyer
The lighted cacti & tree are spectacular!!
Shirley Johnston
Hi Arthur,
I have been working with Paul Basha over the past year to install some turn lanes on Carefree Highway. There were a couple of logistical issues which included the annexation into Scottsdale a strip of the right-of-way that was still under County jurisdiction. That has all moved forward and Scottsdale has authorized funds to build the turn lanes. One of these turn lanes will be a right turn lane at 60th Street and Carefree Highway. The two others will be left turn lanes into subdivisions in Carefree on the north side of the street. The turn lanes are slated to be built by next summer. No immediate help but know help is coming!
Best regards,
Gary Neiss, Town Administrator
(Lyn's note: Arthur Gimson contacted Gary about the traffic congestion on Carefree Highway going eastbound from Cave Creek Road to 60th Street during rush hour, inquiring when Scottsdale planned to widen the road or install turn lanes. Arthur shared Gary's response with me and Gary gave me permission to publish it, as it is good information that will be of interest to many in the area.)
Congratulations on the new council chambers. I look forward to watching Herb's videos of future meetings in the new digs!
Laurie Palace
LYN
u r so great
i admire all u do for Carefree—& ur readers
needless 2 say-i adore u—HAPPY HOLIDAYS 2 U BOTH
HUGS
LORAINE
These are spectacular!
Thank you, again.
Mayor Les Peterson
(Lyn's note: Herbert's photos of the Christmas Festival)
Santa is popular. Some guests come specifically to see Santa. The kids are all dressed up and looking good. Santa is a key ingredient to the program and cannot be there too much.
I spent a lot of time in the Garden over the past two weekends and can say with confidence we had lots of happy customers. Many told me so and I could see it.
Best regards,
John Crane
Thanks, Lyn, for the kind recognition of our involvement in the Carefree Christmas Festival. The credit for the idea really goes to, then Mayor, Ed Morgan who had heard Donna and I play, and asked us to perform a Christmas concert outside in the Carefree amphitheater. The first two concerts were in 2002 & 2003. We actually brought in a real Steinway concert grand piano and Theater organ on the stage there and invited the local school choirs to join which were a huge hit. You can’t imagine what playing a real piano outside in 300 - 400weather can do to the tuning. In 2004, we took our concert inside to the Carefree Resort opera house to solve that problem and accommodate more people, as attendance had grown to over 1,000. We also worked in other religious and secular songs of the season and, always, a special tribute to our veterans. The concerts continued there for, I think, 5 more years and Jo Gemmill built on that to create the incredibly successful Carefree Christmas Festival which exceeded all expectations. We are very happy to see our fine Mayor and Council Members continuing this great tradition and bringing our community together in this way. Look forward to seeing you there.
Lloyd Meyer
The lighted cacti & tree are spectacular!!
Shirley Johnston
Hi Arthur,
I have been working with Paul Basha over the past year to install some turn lanes on Carefree Highway. There were a couple of logistical issues which included the annexation into Scottsdale a strip of the right-of-way that was still under County jurisdiction. That has all moved forward and Scottsdale has authorized funds to build the turn lanes. One of these turn lanes will be a right turn lane at 60th Street and Carefree Highway. The two others will be left turn lanes into subdivisions in Carefree on the north side of the street. The turn lanes are slated to be built by next summer. No immediate help but know help is coming!
Best regards,
Gary Neiss, Town Administrator
(Lyn's note: Arthur Gimson contacted Gary about the traffic congestion on Carefree Highway going eastbound from Cave Creek Road to 60th Street during rush hour, inquiring when Scottsdale planned to widen the road or install turn lanes. Arthur shared Gary's response with me and Gary gave me permission to publish it, as it is good information that will be of interest to many in the area.)
Congratulations on the new council chambers. I look forward to watching Herb's videos of future meetings in the new digs!
Laurie Palace
LYN
u r so great
i admire all u do for Carefree—& ur readers
needless 2 say-i adore u—HAPPY HOLIDAYS 2 U BOTH
HUGS
LORAINE