What's Happening on Shelter Island: Week of December 15, 2011

BLUE HIGHWAY REDUX!

Award-winning Blue Highway, one of the country’s top bluegrass bands, is back on track to perform on Shelter Island in the school auditorium on Saturday, January 14 at 7:30 p.m. The original concert date was cancelled, no thanks to Tropical Storm Irene. The concert is sponsored by the Sylvester Manor Educational Farm and the town’s Recreation Department, and reserved seat tickets are on sale now. (Event producer Tom Hashagen suggests that a pair of tickets would make a great stocking stuffer.) To order, visit brownpapertickets.com/event/214278. Tickets range in price from $20 to $30. Students get a $10 discount with a valid ID at the door.

CAROLING NIGHT

The Shelter Island PBA will hold its annual community caroling night on Thursday, December 22 at 5 p.m. Everyone is welcome to join in; the meeting place is police headquarters and pizza will follow at Bella Vita. For more information, call 749-0600.

CHRISTMAS CANTATA

The Presbyterian Church will hold this year’s cantata on Sunday, December 18 at 3 p.m. The program will include selections by the Community Chorus, a performance by the Handbell Choir and special instrumental music. The cantata is under the direction of Linda Betjeman.

TEA AND TREE

Sylvester Manor is reviving an Island tradition this year, Tea and Tree, which will be held on Saturday, December 17 from 2 to 4 p.m. This annual event was hosted for many years by the Lady of the Manor, Mrs. Andrew Fiske. This year’s Tea and Tree invites members and volunteers to participate; new supporters can sign up for 2012 at the tea or online (sylvestermanor.org). Those attending should enter by the main gates on Route 114 opposite the IGA and follow the signs to parking.

ACROSS THE MOAT

CELEBRATE HANUKAH

Temple Adas Israel of Sag Harbor invites the community to the celebration of Hanukah, the Festival of Lights, which begins with the lighting of the first candle on Tuesday, December 20 at 5 p.m. The giant Menorah at the windmill on Main Street will be lit every night at 4:30 p.m. In addition to the traditional Hanukah fare, latkes, soufganiyot and dreidle games, there will be a special program to benefit Wings Over Haiti, a charity, founded by temple member Jonathan Nash Glynn, who flies his own plane to Haiti to deliver medical supplies.

For more information, visit the temple’s website, templeadasisrael.org, or call 725-0904.

THE LYRIS QUARTET

The quartet will perform at Brecknock Hall in Greenport on Sunday, December 18 at 4 and again at  8 p.m. Lyris will present a multimedia program, interspersing readings from “intimate letters” written by composer Leos Janacek with music from his No. 2 Quartet. Seasonal selections from Philip Glass’s Quartet No. 5 will also be on the program.

Tickets cost $10 per person and can be obtained by calling 477-3800.

METEOR SHOWER PARTY

Weather permitting, the Geminid meteor shower can be seen between December 6 and 19 and by Saturday, December 17, there should still be a number to see streaking across the night sky. The Custer Institute & Observatory on Main Bayview Road in Southold invites community members to bring a blanket or lawn chair for the sky show, starting at 7 p.m. Custer’s telescopes will also be open for stargazing until midnight. The suggested donation is $5, $3 for children. If in doubt about the weather, call 765-2626.

AT CANIO’S…

Canio’s, located on Main Street in Sag Harbor, will host New Yorker cartoonist Gahan Wilson on Friday, December 16 at 6 p.m. He will discuss his latest book, “Nuts, A Graphic Novel,” which has been described by fiction and comic writer Neil Gaiman as “the best, most clear-eyed explanation of and memoir about childhood I’ve ever read. Small, cramped, perfect drawings that show children as they are — explorers without a map or a book of instructions in the land of mad giants.” Admission is free.

‘A CHRISTMAS MEMORY’

The Floyd Memorial Library, 539 First Street in Greenport, will host a reading of Truman Capote’s “A Christmas Memory” with Tom DeWolfe and Jere Jacob on Sunday, December 18 at 3 p.m.

Admission is free. For more information, call 477-0660.