Well, the big turkey day is over and everyone should be rested up now to head out and do your Christmas shopping, and we’re hoping you shop locally here in the city and support our local retailers and shops. 21 days until Christmas. Are you excited?

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The City’s annual Christmas Tree and Menorah Lighting Ceremony will take place tomorrow, Thursday, Dec. 5, at 5:30 p.m. on the City Hall Concourse, followed by a meet and greet with Santa Claus in the Somerville High School Highlander Café (atrium entrance). The tree lighting ceremony will feature musical entertainment by the Somerville High School Band and Orchestra, the Somerville Community Chorus, El Sistema Somerville, and grade four students from the Arthur D. Healey Elementary School. Special guest Santa Claus will be escorted by the Somerville Fire Department for the ceremony and will be available for photos following the tree lighting. All children attending the ceremony will also receive a gift from Santa. The menorah was first lit on Wednesday, Nov. 26, on the first day of Hannukah, tomorrow night, a brief ceremony will mark the end of Hannukah.

By Jim Clark

Somerville Police undercover narcotics officers, while conducting surveillance operations in the Winter Hill area last week, whereupon they spotted what they regarded as suspicious activity on the part of two individuals, identified as Charles Ryan, 38, of Roxbury, and Nicholas Cunha, 34, of Charlestown.

It’s officially off and running, now that Thanksgiving Day has come and gone.

And just what is the “it” in question? That’s a good question, according to many. The Christmas/holiday/whatever season is now upon us, and with it comes the disconcerting controversy regarding the nomenclature of the occasion.

By Russ Allison

(The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries of The Somerville Times belong solely to the authors of those commentaries and  do not reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville Times, its staff  or publishers)

This year is the first time that I have had anything to do with putting on a Thanksgiving meal. I feel compelled to write a technical manual for the novice having to cook a turkey.

In preparation for buying a turkey, the freezer must be vacated. All of the freezer burned vegetables have to be tossed out. If the fish sticks are still edible, eating them cannot be put off any longer. Throw out the grease can. Once the freezer is completely emptied, it is time to force the frozen turkey in with an aggressive thrust.

The 17th Annual Gobble Gobble Gobble 4 Miler marathon took place last Thursday, Thanksgiving Day. Runners took to the streets, starting in Davis Sq., decked out in their feathery finest in support of Project Soup and Somerville Track PAC, a program aimed at providing college scholarships for Somerville High School students.

The Saint Clement Anchormen prevailed over St. Joseph Prep in the big Thanksgiving Day matchup last week at Tufts Field. – Photo by Darren Deng

By James Cameron

The Anchormen, in an effort to prove they still have it after their playoff exit, defeated the Phoenixes 43-16 at Tufts Field on Thanksgiving.

Dan Sklar has been described as an “American Primitive” by other poets in the region. And they mean this as a compliment. Sklar is a PhD and a professor of Creative Writing at Endicott College and he writes with a no-frills and emotive style–that cuts to the chase and cuts the … well you know what.  His latest book of poetry is titled  Flying Cats: Actually Swooping ( Ibbetson Street Press). I talked with Sklar on my Somerville Community Access TV show Poet to Poet: Writer to Writer.

A poem about James Joyce and Harry Truman? Unlikely you say. But Michael Todd Steffen pulls it off.

With an anticipated influx of new job opportunities in Somerville, the city aims to cut a path leading local workers directly to those jobs by entering into a contract with a local workforce development agency. In addition to providing job training, the selected agency will connect residents with Somerville employers looking to hire and will promote all opportunities for residents to have first access to local jobs.

The new Holiday Arts & Eats Festival at Assembly Row in Somerville to be held this Friday through Sunday, December 6, 7, and 8, will be the area’s first-ever winter Food Truck festival, in conjunction with an artisan market, local musicians, a beer and wine tent, a holiday train ride, and several other holiday and children’s activities. The artisan market and all activities will be held under a festive heated tent.