FIND BEAUTIFUL HANDMADE GIFTS AT GARDEN CLUB BOUTIQUE "Sleigh Bells in the Snow" is the theme of the Mountain Garden Club's Annual Holiday Boutique, on Saturday December 8 at the North Conway Community Center located adjacent to Schouler Park in North Conway Village. Doors open promptly at 9:30 am, and plan to arrive early for the best selection. Each year club members come up with a wide selection of exceptional and distinctive decorations and gifts. This year children's size Adirondack chairs, hand painted with decorative scenes by members of the Jackson Painted Ladies will be featured along with handmade, seasonal, eye-catching items and gifts crafted by the many talented MGC members including boxwood trees, decoupage plates and bowls, hydrangea wreaths, jewelry, Kissing Balls, greens baskets, berry bowls, ornaments, and more. There is ample free parking directly behind the Community Center in the North Conway Country Club lot. This is a once-a-year don't miss shopping extravaganza. For more information regarding the club, its programs and activities go to MGC.

ANOTHER SHOPPING OPTION FOR LOCAL ARTWORK Visit any weekend through the end of December and experience the MWV Arts Association HOLIDAY ART SHOW & SALE. The sale will be held Friday, Saturday and Sundays through December 30 from 10am-5pm in the former Casual Corner store, next to Staples on Route 16. Here you'll find framed original paintings, photography, mixed media, etchings and three-dimensional art by local and regional artists. Also, new this year are unframed matted prints, photos and notecards from original artworks plus hand decorated and signed ornaments for $15 each. For more information, visit mwvarts or call 603-356-ARTS.

A NOT SO TRADITIONAL YANKEE SWAP Participate in a traditional New England Christmas & Holiday activity - a Yankee Swap on December 14, 7pm at the Red Fox Bar & Grille in Jackson! This will be a fun-filled family event. Santa will be on hand to visit with the kids and oversee the entire event so parents will have to behave. Here is how the "Not So Typical" Yankee Swap will work: participants will purchase a ticket for $6 each or 4 for $20 then tickets are entered into a drawing. Twenty winners of the drawing will advance to the actual Yankee Swap. The Yankee Swap will start at approximately 7:00 pm. Each winner is guaranteed to walk away with a gift valued at $100 or more. The grand prize winner will walk away with a prize valued at $1,000 or more. This event is sponsored by the Jackson Chamber of Commerce. For more information, visit Jackson or call 603-383-9356.

MT WASHINGTON VALLEY SKI RESORTS RECEIVE HONORS The Orbitz Insider Index offers editors picks and New Hampshire's White Mountains made it into the ski regions deemed "outside the mainstream", naming Attitash, Bretton Woods, Wildcat and Jackson Ski Touring Foundation specifically. Additionally, Bretton Woods was ranked number three resort in North America for its excellence in family programs and in the top five for its grooming by Ski Magazine(Oct. 2007). The same survey ranked Bretton Woods number one in the East for weather; Top five in the East for snow, service, on-mountain food, lodging and scenery; and Top ten in the East for dining, lifts, off-hill activities, and overall satisfaction. There's no doubt that all thirteen ski resorts and XC centers in Mt. Washington Valley are deserving of awards and accolades. Learn more about Mt. Washington Valley's ski resorts at SKI MWV

CHRISTMAS WEEK MEANS FUN ON THE SLOPES The schedule is packed with events, races and tons of fun on the slopes during Christmas week, the real kick-off to the ski season. You'll enjoy everything from the traditional Ullrfest at Shawnee Peak to Penguins and Polar Bears Ski Camp at Great Glen Trails. Cranmore features Cranapalooza and the Monster Mash Jam, a freestyle park competition. On December 31, there's $1,500 in cash prizes to jib for in the ATP Freeride Rail Jam at Attitash, the kick off event to the ATP Freeride Series.Then it's all topped off with the Mt. Washington Valley New Year's Festival featuring live entertainment and midnight fireworks in Schouler Park. Be sure to visit MWVCCand click on the Calendar link to learn all about Christmas week packed with fun events and festivities.

POLAR EXPRESS TICKETS AVAILABLE THROUGH MWV LODGING PACKAGES Each year more than 200 volunteers work together to recreate the wonderful story of The Polar Express^TM. Children ride the Polar Express (a.k.a. Conway Scenic RR) to the North Pole where they're greeted by a sea of elves. Then Santa reads the heart-warming story of the boy who lost then found his Christmas bell. Tickets for this event are so high in demand that they were distributed by lottery in the fall. A number of Mt. Washington Valley lodging properties were lucky enough to get them, and have created packages including overnight stays and tickets to the Polar Express. Inns including The Bartlett Inn, Bernerhof Inn, Buttonwood Inn, Colonial Motel, Cranmore Mountain Lodge, Red Apple Inn, Snowvillage Inn, Wildflowers Inn, Eastman Inn and Kearsarge Inn still have packages available for select dates during the holiday season. To learn more about the availability of Polar Express lodging packages or tickets, please contact the MWVCC at 800-DO-SEE-NH (800-367-3364).

A VICTORIAN CHRISTMAS AT REMICK COUNTRY DOCTOR MUSEUM Come for a traditional and historic Victorian Christmas celebration on Sunday, December 9, from 1-4pm at the Remick Country Doctor Museum & Farm and the Captain Enoch Remick House. Teach your children about vintage toys before electronics, Internet and computers were invented as the whold family enjoys Victorian-era toys and samples country baked cookies! Warm up by the fire while tasting syllabub, a traditional drink. Snack on fresh-baked crackers and dips, and then make traditional holiday crafts. Tour an exhibit on the history of Christmas traditions, and see the living quarters of Dr Edwin Crafts Remick, the country doctor who owned the property. Victorian Christmas 2007 will take place at Remick Country Doctor Museum & Farm, 58 Cleveland Hill Road, and the Captain Enoch Remick House, 26 Great Hill Road, Tamworth Village, New Hampshire. Both houses are connected by Remick Farm, where a horse drawn carriage will transport visitors to each location. For more information, call (800) 686-6117 or (603) 323-7591 or visit our website at Remick Museum. General admission to the museum is always free. Donations are gratefully accepted.

MIRACLE AT NESTLENOOK FARMS RECREATION CENTER & SANTAS VILLAGE Bring the kids to Mt. Washington Valley to visit Santa this year. Weekends until Christmas, visit Santa and his elves in their workshop at Nestlenook Outdoor Recreation Center in Jackson, then enjoy treats, fun and leave with a special treasure. The whole family can take a sleigh ride into the Emerald Forest on authentic Austrian Sleigh at 7pm and 8pm on Fridays and 5, 6, 7 and 8pm on Saturdays. Reservations are recommended. Tickets are $18.00. For reservations and more information, call 603-383-0845. Also, Santa's Village in Jefferson, NH will open weekends through December with rides, visits with Santa and special shows in the Polar Players Theater throughout the day. Take in a special holiday light show, while visiting with Santa and his reindeer. Admission is $21 per person; children 3 and under are free. For more information, call 603-586-4445 or Santas Village.

ATTITASH FOOD FLURRY Not only will you feel good about helping the hungry, you'll get out on the slopes at Attitash when you bring three cans of food to Attitash on December 16th. Simply bring three cans of food to the ticket window and receive one $35 lift ticket. For more information, visit Attitash.

PLATINIUM ANNIVERSARY TICKET ROLL BACK AT CRANMORE Come help Cranmore resort celebrate a multi-decade anniversary. On December 21st, the venerable resort will rock back the clocks and offer a full day lift ticket for only $3.30. That's what skiers were paying back when World War 2 was looming and FDR was in the White House...and Cranmore first operated the Skimobile. For more information, visit Cranmore and click on events.

C IS FOR COOKIES & CANDY AT THE INN TO INN COOKIE TOUR PACKAGE "C" is not only for Christmas but also for cookies and candy in Mt. Washington Valley. When innkeepers from the Country Inns in the White Mountains wish their guests sweet dreams on the second weekend in December they can guarantee that visions of sugar plums and holiday cookies will dance in their heads. December 8-9, 2007 is the weekend the Country Inns in the White Mountains assure holiday revelers the ultimate in sweet dreams at the 11th Annual Inn to Inn Holiday Cookie and Candy TourŪ held from 11 am to 4 pm each day. Participants will not only tour inns decked in all their holiday finery offering signature holiday cookies and candies, but once again this year they'll be treated to a display of handmade gingerbread sculptures, collector's ornaments and recipe collections from each inn. The tour stretches from Harts Location, to Tamworth, NH and over to Fryeburg, ME, with seventeen inns opening their doors to those in search of a great sugar high. No inn is more than fifteen minutes from the next, with many much closer. Tickets are $25 for the two day tour; however day-tickets are limited to those available after Cookie Tour lodging packages are sold. Each participating inn will offer two tickets (a $50 value) with a wonderful cookie tour package, including a two-night stay and breakfast for two each day. Some inns have added dinners and cookie baking classes to their packages. For a complete list of cookie tour packages, visit Country Inns in the White Mountains. Tour tickets are available in advance by reserving a lodging package from participating inns and this is the best way to secure a ticket for a weekend of cookie, candy and gingerbread fun. For more information, call 877-854-6535 or visit www.countryinnsinthewhitemountains.com.