From Ugly Christmas Sweaters to ….

From Ugly Christmas Sweaters to a Grinch who saves Christmas, LW neighbors and friends are celebrating the season by offering custom-made entertainment and holiday cheer. Readings, plays and holiday programs are being produced online to make your holidays merrier, all from the comfort and safety of home. Read on for a round-up of what’s going on in LW.

CHRISTMAS TREE LIGHTING

The GRF Recreation Department will livestream the lighting of the Christmas tree tonight, Dec. 10, from Veterans Plaza. The online event begins at 4:30 p.m. with a musical presentation by The Entertainers club. Eric and Sandy Nelson, Jeanine Greb and Vickie Van Ert will perform the “Christmas in Quarantine” show. Tune in to the Veterans Plaza event at http://www. lwsb.com/treelighting/. This can only be viewed online, not attended in person. The Video Producers Club will make this program and the Menorah Lighting filmed Dec. 8 available on youtube.com and air it on SBTV-Channel 3, Spectrum 1390 and other stations later in the month.

COVID CHRISTMAS & MORE

The Theater Club has produced a film called “A COVID Christmas” to entertain Leisure World residents, who will be safely hunkered down in their homes during the holidays. It’s one of three special pro- ductions created by LW clubs to spread cheer during an otherwise Grinchy 2020 Christmas season.

In addition to “A COVID Christmas,” watch for “Special Delivery,” featuring Wild Willy and Charla Gae, and written by Joe Osuna from the Video Producers Club, and “Three Told Tales,” featuring LW Santa Claus himself, aka Phil Mandeville. Taylor White selected the readings, and Joseph Valentinetti produced the show.

A COVID CHRISTMAS

Christmas 2020 is different than in years past. A pandemic has almost shut down the world. In the North Pole, Santa is ready to go, but a health official spotted Rudolph’s red nose and quarantined Santa and his entire workshop staff for 14 days.

What to do? Is there anyone in the North Pole who has not been out and about this holiday season? Think, think, think. Is there one person who can save the day?

Or are there two?

The Grinch and his faithful dog Max live in a cave and don’t come out until Christmas. They don’t even know about the virus. Will Grinch and Max agree to save the day?

Tune in to youtube.com and Channel 1390 to watch the Christmas Eve adventures of Santa, his elves with two unlikely heroes who try to save the day.

SPECIAL DELIVERY

Eight LW actors are featured in “Special Delivery,” a Christmas play, including Joyce Basch, nimbly tapping her heart out; Luanne DeSantis, Charla Gae, the intrepid grandma headed to the North Pole; Russell Gray, Phil Mandeville as Santa, Oralia Osuna, Mark Scott, and Wild Willey, a fearsome pirate with a shoulder-mounted parrot.

Watch for the show on youtube. com and other local stations.

THREE TOLD TALES

Charlie Guggino will paraphrase the last chapter of Charles Dickins’ “A Christmas Carol,” the 1843 novella that recounts the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, an elderly miser who is visited by the ghost of his former business partner Jacob Marley and the spirits of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come.

Joseph Chavez will read “The Christmas Eve Truce of WWI,” written by LWer Taylor White from old newspaper articles.

Finally, Santa Claus, aka Phil Mandeville, will give a spirited rendition of “The Night Before Christmas,” a poem first published anonymously in 1823 and later attributed to Clement Clarke Moore, who claimed authorship in 1837.

Joseph Valentinetti produced the show, which started airing Dec. 8 on Spectrum Cable TV Channel 1390 at around 4 p.m.

It will be aired for the entire month of December; it can also be seen at http://www.lwsb.com/ threetoldtales/ and at www.youtube. com.

It’s Ugly Christmas Sweater Day on Dec. 18, so these friends—all members of the Traveling Tigers Club—are keeping the annual tradition robustly alive. They are Glenna Hoff (l-r), Joan Schwichtenberg, Jeannie Berro, Joanna Matos, Elizabeth Daniels and Susan Shaver (see page 3 for more).

Charla Gae is one of eight actors featured in “Special Delivery,” a Christmas play that will be shown on youtube.com.