Museum Christmas Fest on Nov. 29

The staff at the Phillips County Museum completed the second of two days of setting up for this year's Phillips County Historical Society's "Old Fashion Christmas!" nearly three weeks ahead of the November 29 event, an annual occurrence at the Malta location.

One change this year for the Christmas party is instead of giving out only small trees for local businesses, individuals, and organizations to decorate for the night's auction, this time around, the traditional trees are joined by wreaths and swags to be decorated (and from now until November 29 to be voted on by the public to pick which are their favorites) a total of 12 entries.

"The committee was split, and some wanted to do away with the trees and just do wreaths and swags and others wanted to keep the trees," Phillips County Museum Curator Lori Taylor said. "So now everything is sized well for anybody's house. Smaller is sometimes better and sometimes change is good."

Aside from the Christmas decorated items up for voting and auction this year, there is also a slew of bucket raffle items which include 24 items, from lap quilts to table runners, and from accents to pillows, there are many items to be had.

"We have never had hand-made pillows for the auction and one person asked if they could donate one," Taylor said. "We said yes and then all of the sudden we had three people bring in pillows."

From now until the day of the event, the public is invited to take part in the bucket raffles and vote for their favorite tree, wreath, and swag entries. Tickets for the bucket raffle are $1 each or $5 for an arm's length. The party on the 29th promises a night of refreshments - including hors devours, sweets, and beverages - from 6 to 8 p.m. with the auctions slated to begin at 7 p.m. The bucket raffle drawings will take place through out the festival, which is one of the museum's major fund-raisers during the year.

Trees, wreaths, and swags at this year's events were decorated by local businesses, individuals and organizations including First Security Bank, Becky and Amy Bruce, Rough Riders 4-H, Tulips & Treasures, Avante, Malta Boys & Girls Club, Independence Bank, Edgewater Inn, Great Northern Hotel, Hi-Line H'Attitudes, and more.