Live Here, Shop Here is a Maple Ridge Pitt Meadows News campaign that spans the holiday season to spotlight the value of shopping local.
Spending time with the family is what the holidays are all about and there are many things to do right in the heart of Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows to bring everyone together and get you in the festive spirit.
Christmas is a great time to discover a new traditions.
Finding the perfect Christmas tree and cutting it down is a tradition that has spanned the generations, explained Ryan Murphy, owner and operator of Murphy’s Tree Farm.
“I think there’s very few times of the year when the whole family can get together and celebrate something together,” said Murphy.
“It’s a great tradition,” he added. “You are bringing in something that’s living, you are bringing in something that’s alive, it has a great smell,” he said, and it’s renewable.
“We cut down trees, but we replant, three to one,” he explained, while using farmland that is not suitable to other types of farming.
Murphy noted that by shopping local people are supporting them, and they in turn support local jobs and local people.
There is plenty to do at Murphy’s Tree Farm in addition to picking out the perfect Christmas tree.
In November, they offer photos with Santa taken by professional photographers.
When the tree farm officially opens, the weekend of Nov. 29 and 30 this year, guests have a choice of a range of firs and spruces, and they can also take a scenic wagon ride, warm up by the fire pit, and enjoy the company of the resident goats.
The farm also offers wreath-making classes, and a Christmas market is filled with festive treasures from handcrafted ornaments, cozy decor items, unique gifts, and winter treats.
For more information go to: https://murphytreefarms.com/.
Another great holiday tradition is the historical British pantomime.
Every year Maple Ridge’s own SPECC-tacular Productions Theatre Group puts on a pantomime.
“The joy of putting on a pantomime, for the cast, crew, and production team, stems from a unique blend of creative freedom, community building, and the unparalleled satisfaction of generating pure, unadulterated joy for an audience, especially children,” explained Christine Olorenshaw, with the theatre group.
A pantomime is a comical play for children based on fairy tales, but it also offers puns and political jokes, which the adults will enjoy. A pantomime also features a number of popular songs where the lyrics have been changed to suit the play and includes audience participation.
And, the characters are traditionally cross-dressing roles. The prince is played by a woman and the Dame is always a man.
This year SPECC-tacular is putting on “Alice in Wonderland”, based on the book of the same title by Lewis Carroll.
“To create a pantomime, one of the challenges is to find a through-line, a satisfying pantomimic story to hold all the fantastical material together,” explained Olorenshaw.
To enter the Wonderland world, she added, is really is to enter the world of pantomime.
You can catch the production Thursday, Jan. 8, Friday, Jan. 9, and Saturday Jan. 10.
For more information go to: https://www.facebook.com/SPECCtacularProductions.
• Check out upcoming Maple Ridge Pitt Meadows News editions for more stories in our Live Here, Shop Here series.