Library News for the week of Dec. 1, 2021

Converse County Libraries are ready for a festive holiday season!

HOLIDAY LIGHTS TOUR

Registration is open for our fourth annual Polar Express City Lights Tour. The “train” will be made up of individual cars lined up to parade around Glenrock and Douglas to view the holiday lights.

The event will be Dec. 15 in Glenrock and Dec. 16 in Douglas.

The lights tours were begun as a way to experience the joy of the lights around our communities in groups. It has become a popular, free Christmas tradition for Converse County families. We encourage the whole family (or at least the kids) to dress up in warm pajamas, just as the kids do in the favorite holiday movie!

People may be inspired to decorate their cars as well and there will be a prize for the winners of the box car” decorating competition.

In Douglas there’s a Holiday Lighting Competition and folks on that tour will be able to view and vote for the house they believe was the most festive. Kids may also bring along a letter to Santa, just in case the Jolly Old Elf makes a surprise appearance!

We will begin with two departures for each community, one at 5 p.m., and one at 6:30 p.m. We may add a departure at 8 p.m. Each “train” will be made up of 10 cars to limit traffic. Please contact the Glenrock Library at 436-2573, the Douglas Library at 358-3644 or email tlehner@conversecountylibrary.org to register for the event. When you register, please let us know the number of people in your car and how many are children. 

LIBRARY SHOPPING

Glenrock Library will be participating in the Chamber of Commerce’s Shop Hop Dec. 4. The library will be open from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., so please stop by to try your hand at finding Dew Drop, our own Christmas Elf, wherever she may be hiding!

We will begin our Holiday Book Sale on Dec. 4, as well, and we invite you to browse through the sale shelves while you search for our library elf. We’d like to encourage our friends and patrons to start a new tradition for the holiday, taken from the good folk of Iceland: “Jolabokaflod,” which translates roughly to Christmas book flood!

The tradition has been upheld since its beginning during World War II, at which time the people of Iceland suffered shortages as many commodities became scarce. Paper, however, was the exception to the rule, and it was then that the Icelanders began to routinely give books as gifts to each member of the family, turning them, as noted on jolabokaflod.com, into a country of bookaholics to this day. Publishers, in face, send out lists of upcoming titles to families.

We think this is an excellent tradition! The idea is to wrap up books for everyone in the household to open on Christmas Eve. Then, everyone snuggles down to read their new book, armed with a cup of cocoa at hand.