Amid extreme wind, drenching rains – even a tornado touching down locally – and following months of preparations for its middle school production of Disney’s “The Little Mermaid JR,” the Mount Madonna School (MMS) community did what it does so well: come together to support one another in a time of need. Due to a downed tree and power line, access to the school was cut off Saturday morning, resulting in the cancellation of Saturday afternoon’s sold out show. Head of School Ann Goewert and Advancement Director Kevict Yen, meanwhile, were already on campus, having arranged for an early-morning delivery of an industrial, 70,000-watt generator to have on hand as…
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Holiday Lights Guide
Santa Cruz Parks & Recreation introduces the Inaugural Holiday Glow Guide—a community-driven showcase of our area’s most festive and dazzling holiday displays. The Glow Guide features local homes with twinkling lights, creative decorations, and festive charm. How to Join: Register your home as a festive stop by submitting your address and a photo at 2024 Holiday Glow Guide and Contest. Once registered, your home will be added to the online Glow Guide map for the community to explore. Every entry receives a $5 promo code for Winter-Spring activity registration. The winner will receive a $50 Parks & Recreation gift card.
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Glowing Drive-Thru at the Fairgrounds
Gowing reindeer, a snowman tipping his hat, bicycles circling the sky, a towering Christmas tree and a lit up water tank house are just a fraction of this year’s HOLIDAY LIGHTS drive and walk-through display at the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds. The family-oriented event started Nov. 29 and runs every Friday, Saturday and Sunday evening between Thanksgiving and Christmas eve. “Because many of our guests have a Christmas Eve tradition of coming to HOLIDAY LIGHTS on December 24th, we will have two Bonus Nights this year – December 23 and December 24,” said Ron Haedicke, marketing director for the Fairgrounds Foundation. Over the past year, volunteers have been working to…
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Lindsey Chester Launches Theatre 831
You don’t have to tell Lindsey Chester that all the world’s a stage! Chester has devoted herself and two decades of artistic management helping young performers take their first steps with All About TheaterMany of her young students go on to larger regional stages, even Hollywood and Broadway! Now the founder of AAT is expanding her reach by leasing and opening up the Colligan Theater for a new season of performance. Taking over the former Tannery Arts Center home of the Jewel Theater with her new project Theater 831, Chester is already reaching out to local arts groups. Giving priority to performance groups at the Tannery World Dance and Cultural…
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Local Businesses Need Your Help
We got some disturbing news recently from two local businesses we love. They are struggling badly and need us to shop in their stores. The good news is that we can help them, just by shopping in real life, not online.The bad news is that we may be watching the end of retail as we know it. Amazon and the billionaires boys club are killing local businesses. Wonderland Toys, a great shop in Aptos, is one of those businesses that recently sent out an appeal for help. “There’s nothing easy about this announcement, so we’re just going to come out & say it…our little shop is in trouble. This past…
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Scrooge Meets Shakespeare
From the story that gave us the expression “Bah, humbug!” and the character Scrooge—A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens, a new holiday tradition will debut next week. Santa Cruz Shakespeare Artistic Director Charles Pasternak has adapted Dickens’ beloved story and will direct the upcoming Santa Cruz Shakespeare production opening next week in the downtown Santa Cruz Veterans Hall. The story is well-known, well-loved, and will warm the hearts of audiences of every age. The ghost of Jacob Marley—greedy business partner of tight-fisted Ebenezer Scrooge—is condemned to an afterlife bound in chains. His midnight visit to Scrooge sets up a series of emotional episodes that will transform the cold-hearted Scrooge into…
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The Little Mermaid Jr.: A Tale of Curiosity, Longing and Acceptance
The seaweed is always greener in somebody else’s ocean… or is it? This idea resonates deeply in Disney’s “The Little Mermaid Jr.,” a tale that explores the longing for a different life, the struggle to accept one’s circumstances and the pursuit of curiosity. Based on one of Hans Christian Andersen’s most beloved stories, “The Little Mermaid Jr.” – as embodied onstage by Mount Madonna School’s (MMS) middle school cast – is an enchanting look at the sacrifices we all make for love and acceptance. Performances are Dec. 14 and 15 at 2pm at Mount Madonna School’s Hawks’ Nest Theater. Tickets on sale at mms-thelittlemermaid.brownpapertickets.com. Adult tickets are $20; seniors are…
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Tips for Supporting a Neurodivergent Child During the Holidays
For neurodivergent children, the holiday season can be challenging. This time of year is full of new experiences, new foods, new sounds, and new people. Simply put — for children who are neurodivergent, special needs or highly sensitive — new often equals hard. And when kids are having a hard time, parents are usually having a hard time as well. So how can parents keep the joy and fun of holiday activities and traditions while supporting their child? Here are four practical strategies for navigating the holiday season with a kid who needs some extra support. But first, let’s unpack why some children struggle with the holiday season. Why exactly…
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Local Woman Makes ‘Not So Neighborly’ Holiday Game
Courtney Laschkewitsch, a Santa Cruz local, is an innovative, brilliant product licensing coach and tabletop gamemaker. Her ongoing career allows her to make people’s dreams come true, and now, she is bringing one of her own dreams to life. A beautiful mix of strong family values, imagination, and love for the holidays has inspired Courtney to create an accessible, fun Christmas themed “Print & Play” tabletop game. Where are you from? What was your childhood like? Courtney Laschkewitsch: I grew up in La Selva Beach with my brother and parents. We were homeschooled for most of my education . My parents would revolve our interests around education. We were encouraged…
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Santa Cruz Gives Holiday Campaign 2024
As we embark on this year’s fundraiser for 63 local nonprofits, we can all be grateful that 2024 is the first year in quite a while without a community-wide crisis. While most years don’t have a pandemic, a flood, or a recession — for many of our neighbors, every year is a challenge. Some of the organizations who are participating in Santa Cruz Gives work to provide essentials such as food and shelter for the neediest. Others elevate the quality of life for all residents to provide what government and for-profit enterprises do not: programs that meet our aspirational hopes and dreams—for example, arts and education that are affordable. Other…
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Holiday Guide
Here are some gift ideas for both kids and adults.
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The Play’s The Thing
How is it the holidays already? Wasn’t it just summer? Isn’t it still summer? It sure feels like it. And aren’t things supposed to slow down in the winter? Not here and not for families. Thumbing through this issue there are a host of plays, musical performances and winter camps. It’s really amazing. It starts on our cover with Santa Cruz Shakespeare moving from summer to the holidays with one of the greatest family plays ever, A Christmas Carol. Sure, everyone’s seen the movie, but there is nothing like seeing the most skilled actors in the world perform it up close and personal. It’s something that will change a kid’s…
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Scrooge is Coming to Town
Santa Cruz Shakespeare (SCS), a nationally recognized professional repertory theatre company staging imaginative productions for more than a decade, debuts a new holiday tradition for the whole family with its production of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Audiences can expect a theatrical and music-filled adaptation of this classic play. The production will run from November 23 through December 24, 2024, at the Veterans Memorial Hall at 846 Front St in Downtown Santa Cruz. “It is my sincere hope that we are creating a new holiday tradition for our community with A Christmas Carol — one you can share with your children and grandchildren,” said SCS Artistic Director, Charles Pasternak. The show will be…
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Holiday Classic Comes to Mountain Community Theater
Miracle on 34th Street, the play based on the 1947 novel by Valentine Davies is a long-standing tradition at Mountain Community Theater. First adapted by MCT co-founders Peter Troxell and Rita Wadsworth in 1982, it is making its return for the 11th time (and first since 2018) with actors ranging from little kids to big adults, bringing the bustle of New York City at Christmas time and the courtroom action of a very peculiar state trial to Ben Lomond’s “Park Hall” this Winter. Directed by MCT veteran Daria Troxell who has been involved with Miracle on four different occasions over the last 22 years, first starting as production manager in…
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SpongeBob SquarePants Swims into Cabrillo
Cabrillo College’s theater department is no stranger to musical theater. Cabrillo Stage mounts a high quality professional musical every summer, with two recent highlights being 2023’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame and 2024’s In The Heights which felt like it cut out a section of New York’s Washington Heights and placed it on Cabrillo’s magnificent Crocker Theater. This November, get your fry cook hat, spatula and get ready, because Sponegbob Squarepants, his amazing friends (and Plankton) are going to cook up some fun at Cabrillo College. With SpongeBob SquarePants the Musical. Featuring music written by David Bowie, John Legend, Plain White Tees and more. Spearheaded by Cabrillo Stage Artistic Director…
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Mi Casa Es Tu Casa Exhibit Opens
Pajaro Valley Arts has opened their current and annual exhibit, “Mi Casa es Tu Casa” at their Sudden Street gallery. The show explores the connection between the living and those who have passed. The theme this year is “In the Arms of Our Ancestors.” As a centerpiece for the show is the jaguar, a symbol held high across Mesoamerican cultures. The exhibit includes the ideas and collaboration of several area schools where students were invited to create their own artwork and and words for the show that includes 17 altars. Also in the exhibit are various installations, paintings, sculpture, poems, photos and more. “In Mexican tradition, giant puppets, known as…
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Deepening Unique Relationships with Your Children
“Our jobs, other responsibilities, and numerous distractions, make it difficult to devote individual time to each of our children. These competing demands on our time, energy, and attention don’t have to deprive us, though, of the quality one-on-one time—the special time—we can share with them. A Special Parenting Tool Special time is all about deepening the unique relationship you have with your child. As a positive Discipline parenting tool, special time complements other Positive Discipline tools (e.g., discovering the beliefs behind the behaviors, connection before correction, curiosity questions, and encouragement) and lets you get to know and encourage your children in very personal and personalized ways. From Theory to Practice…
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Dental Care During Pregnancy
Pregnancy rites of passage can include pregnancy portraits, baby showers or blessing ways, and many prenatal doctor visits. But visiting the dentist? Yes. Prenatal dental care plays a vitally important role in a healthy pregnancy and healthy start for an infant. Good oral health is important for everyone throughout life. It supports good nutrition, good speech development, a healthy heart, and even good confidence. The benefits are even more important for the pregnant parent. Pregnancy can lead to increased risks for cavities and other oral health challenges. Morning sickness can promote erosion of tooth enamel due to exposure to stomach acid, which can lead to developing cavities. Sweet foods and…
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Learning to Cook Gourmet, Locally Grown Food
Santa Cruz Schools are on a mission to change the way your kids think about vegetables. For the first time ever, five county school districts jointly participated in a culinary training program designed to present a fresh take on produce to the standard school lunch. Farm to table came to life recently as lunch staff from Pajaro, Live Oak, San Lorenzo Valley, Soquel, and Santa Cruz school districts met at Del Mar Elementary school, where under the tutelage of a CIA-trained chef, they spent 5 days in an intensive culinary training bootcamp at the Live Oak District Central Kitchen. Yes, the school cafeteria has evolved since the days when ketchup…
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Santa Cruz Schools Selected as America’s Healthiest
All 10 campuses in the Santa Cruz City School District have placed on the Alliance for a Healthier Generation’s list of America’s Healthiest Schools. The list recognizes schools in a wide-ranging set of categories relating to the programs and supports available to students. Santa Cruz City Schools Bay View Elementary, DeLaveaga Elementary, Gault Elementary, Monarch Elementary, Westlake Elementary, Branciforte Middle, Mission Hill Middle, Costanoa High, Harbor High, Santa Cruz High and Soquel High have all been recognized in the categories of: School Wellness, Nutrition/Food Access and Activity/Physical Education. Additionally, Harbor, Santa Cruz and Soquel High Schools have been awarded for their Health Education programs. “We are so proud to receive…
