Community Corner

Bayside Hills Civic Will Hold Holiday Festival on Dec. 18

Event will include a Christmas tree and menorah lighting, songs and refreshments.

The Bayside Hills Civic Association will host its annual holiday lighting festival on Dec. 18 at Bell Boulevard and 53rd Avenue.

The event, which has drawn large crowds of northeast Queens residents for more than 20 years, includes a Christmas tree and Hanukkah menorah lighting, refreshments, speakers and entertainment, Christmas carols and Hanukkah prayers and decorations.

Attendees will receive candy canes and Christmas carol song sheets.

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Representatives from the 111th Precinct, the mayor’s Community Affairs Unit and northeast Queens’s Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) will take part in the festivities.

The civic has invited a number of elected officials to the event, including U.S. Rep. Bob Turner, Forest Hills, state Sen. Tony Avella, D-Bayside, state Assemblyman David Weprin, D-Little Neck, and Council members Mark Weprin, D-Oakland Gardens, and Dan Halloran, R-Whitestone.

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Other guests include Santa Claus, the Gloria Choir, Oakland Jewish Center Hebrew School and performers Cathy and Michael Chimenti.

Monsignor Martin Geraghty, of St. Robert Bellarmine Roman Catholic Church, and Rabbi Michael Erlich, of Oakland Center, will lead prayers at the festival.

The holiday festival will begin at 5 p.m. at the corner of Bell Boulevard and 53rd Avenue in Bayside.


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