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Beginning at 11 a.m., ‘Mrs. Santa’ invites children to share their holiday wish lists with her at the Unitarian Universalist Red Bow Fair, which runs from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 3 at 28 Mugford St.

FooD, CrAFTS, FUN All’s ‘fair’ during Christmas Walk

BY KRIS OLSON

In addition to local businesses, a number of Marblehead houses of worship will welcome visitors for fairs and other special events during Christmas Walk weekend.

Here is an overview:

The annual Christmas Fair at Our Lady Star of the Sea Catholic Church will run from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 3 in the church’s Parish Center, 80 Atlantic Ave.

Enjoy tasty food and unique, artisanal Christmas gifts created by local artisans and crafters, and enter raffles for hotel gift cards and a “giant” lottery tree, among other prizes.

During the fair, the church will also have a “Living Nativity,” with a real animal petting zoo between 1 and 3 p.m. on Dec. 3.

From 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., Grace Community Church, 17 Pleasant St., will host its open house in the Fellowship Hall, with treats and warm hospitality.

The annual Christmas Fair at St. Michael’s Church, 26 Pleasant St., which will run from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 3. will include the church’s traditional bake table, jewelry table, wreaths and greens, beads and our online silent auction.

Visitors can also bid in an auction that is already underway online. The online bidding will close at midnight Dec. 2, but in-person bidding will continue during the fair.

The auction, which features more than 50 items, benefits the church’s ongoing mission activities, worship services and operations.

The Unitarian Universalist Red Bow Fair will also welcomes visitors between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 3 at 28 Mugford St.

Organizers invite you to shop for wreaths for your door, save money by visiting a room full of white elephant treasures, treat your loved ones to inexpensive books and best sellers, try fair trade olive oil, take part in a dollhouse raffle, or enjoy the Sweets and Treats table of homemade baked goods.

There will be a host of children’s activities, including a chance to talk with Mrs. Santa, beginning at 11 a.m.

The Red Bow Fair Café features delicious lunches and is open from 11 to 2 p.m.

The Follen Angels include Hildy Grossman on vocals, Shinchi Otsu on piano, Kenneth W. Dantzig on drums, Rick Stone on sax/clarinet and Mike Ball on bass. On Dec. 3 in Marblehead, they will be joined by special guest Milt Reder, a composer and guitarist featured in the music of ‘Sex in the City.’

Songs of Sinatra at center of Follen Angels’ return

International cabaret and jazz recording artists The Follen Angels will joyfully return to Marblehead Little Theater with what they say are hip, new arrangements to celebrate music with lyrics that tell stories of Frank Sinatra and friends at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 3.

The Follen Angels will bring their unique styling to such tunes as, “I’ve Got You Under My Skin”, “Come Rain or Come Shine,” “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore”, “How High The Moon”, “New York, New York,” “My Way” and many more.

The Angels also dive into the lives of the iconic artists who originally brought these songs to life.

The Follen Angels’ last East Coast Tour included taking center stage at the renowned “Metropolitan Room” in New York City, Knickerbocker Café in Warwick, Rhode Island, and Holiday Inn, Brookline.

Over the years, they have filled concert halls and radio airwaves, and brought enthusiastic audiences to their feet from Scullers Jazz Club in Boston, Acton Jazz Café, Ryles Jazz Club in Cambridge, Don’t Tell Mama’s in New York City, Mechanics Hall in Worcester, Columbia Station in Washington, D.C., and other outstanding venues. Their six CDs represent a range in style from Gershwin and Cole Porter, Broadway showstoppers, to 1970s pop.

The Follen Angels include Hildy Grossman on vocals, Shinchi Otsu on piano, Kenneth W. Dantzig on drums, Rick Stone on sax/clarinet, Mike Ball on bass and special guest Milt Reder, a composer and guitarist featured in the music of “Sex in the City.”

The Angels guarantee you’ll have a smile on your face and be humming a tune for the rest of the night.

Tickets are limited, and previous Follen Angels shows have sold out.

There are three ways to purchase tickets:

An advance discount ($35) on the first 50 tickets is available by calling Prime Time Promotions at 800-418-7771.

Tickets ($38) will be available at Arnould Gallery and Framing, 111 Washington St.

On the night of the show, remaining tickets ($40) will be available at the Marblehead Little Theater box office.

Audience members will be required to wear masks.

For more information, visit theFollenAngels.com.

STATe HoUSe NeWS ServICe

Indecisive seal and motto commission in new quandary Commissioners unsure how to allocate new $100K budget

SAM DORAN/ STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE

The state commission tasked with making changes to the state seal and motto is newly awash in cash, but members on Tuesday were stuck mulling over how to spend it -- and how to wrap up their work -- with less than seven weeks until the panel is set to disband.

For decades leading up to the panel’s creation in 2021, advocates argued that the state’s current imagery represents violence and oppression toward indigenous people. The 18th century seal portrays an indigenous person on a shield. The crest above it, which is also the state’s military crest, features an arm holding a sword. The motto is roughly translated from Latin as “By the sword we seek peace, but peace only under liberty.”

The State Seal Commission has slogged past statutory and internal deadlines, including its original October 2021 due date to report back to lawmakers. And while the Legislature has kept it alive through multiple extensions, the latest push to extend the commission to March 2023 was snuffed by lawmakers in the economic development bill approved at the beginning of the month.

The conference committee that produced that bill did grant $100,000 to the group, which confused commissioner Donna Curtin of Pilgrim Hall Museum.

“Getting the funding but not getting the time really baffles me. It doesn’t seem to make any sense whatsoever,” Curtin said.

Co-Chair Brian Boyles said it was “a unique position, in a series of unique positions this commission has been in.”

Boyles, the executive director of Mass Humanities, said the panel has “very little time” to spend the funds, and said he has outstanding questions about the money including whether it must be spent by the group’s Dec. 31 deadline.

He also wanted to find out whether the commission could award its $100,000 haul to “a third party” that could “take forward” the commission’s slow-moving work after its deadline passes.

Vice Chair Brittney Walley called it “not the ideal situation that I would want,” and Curtin said it left the commission “between the rock and the hard place.”

State Archives Executive Director Michael Comeau cautioned that the commission might not be able to handpick an institution, but would need to abide by state procurement laws and put spending out to bid, which could be a “hurdle that’s too high to climb.”

“Given the tight timeframe, if we float out the RFP ... do we have enough time, just vis-a-vis the state procurement laws?” he asked.

Kate Miller, an aide to commission member Rep. Antonio Cabral who has been providing staff support to the commission, said that was another question she’d be researching.

Miller also referenced a continuing “behind the scenes” effort to secure yet another deadline extension. But if that