Spirit of season worth celebrating

Welcome to our annual Taste of the Holidays issue.

Inside you will find sweet tidbits to help brighten your holiday celebrations this year, including a story about what inspired the owners of the house on Fifth Street to set up their colorful light display this year amid a year full of challenges.

And because today is Thanksgiving, you can read about what locals are thankful for.

We also are showcasing the winners of our inaugural Christmas Coloring Contest. Congratulations to Saylor Wilkinson, Christian Mojado and Barbara Garris, who won first place in each of the three age divisions.

All of the entries are featured on the windows of our office at 508 Nevada Way. We invite you to stop by and take a look. We hope you are as impressed as we were with the creativity and talent of local residents.

It is our hope to offer this contest again next year, and welcome back our Christmas Cookie and Candy Contest. No one was more disappointed that we had to cancel that than our judges and local law enforcement officers — with whom we share the goodies after they have been judged.

Like you, we are missing the traditional events that make Boulder City such a great place to mark the holidays. We hope that they return next year, along with the multitude of other events that had to be canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Perhaps, like the expression that absence makes the heart grow fonder, we will enjoy them all the more in 2021.

Despite the limitations on our celebrations as we work together to help prevent the spread of COVID-19, there is much we can do to end the year on a positive note.

For example, let’s create a festive environment inside and outside our homes. We can hold family cookie decorating sessions, gather for a marathon of feel-good holiday movies or open presents with far-away friends and relatives via a video conferencing platform.

Because you won’t be able to invite as many family members or friends as you might like into your homes this year, we want to help you share your special decorations. Please send in photos of Christmas trees, tablescapes and other holiday decorations and we will showcase them in the pages of the Boulder City Review.

And we want to continue to guide you to Boulder’s Best outdoor light displays. You can send in pictures of your home’s exterior light display or send us an address and we will go out to take a picture. If you send in a photo, please make sure to include your address so we can direct visitors to stop by and see your decorations.

No matter how you celebrate the season this year, we hope we can, in some small way, help make it merry and bright.

Hali Bernstein Saylor is editor of the Boulder City Review. She can be reached at hsaylor@bouldercityreview.com or at 702-586-9523. Follow @HalisComment on Twitter.