The Phinney Neighborhood Association’s annual Winter Festival and Crafts Fair is this Saturday and Sunday, and they’re still looking for more donations of home-made treats for the bake sale.

If you’d like to contribute some treats for the bake sale, please bring your donation to the reception desk at the Phinney Center either Friday the 3rd (9 am to 9 pm) or during the event on Saturday the 4th (10 am to 5 pm). If you can, please make a card telling what the item is, especially listing any possible allergy ingredients (nuts, peanuts, eggs, wheat, milk). Items sell best if they’re individually packaged in baggies, but it’s okay to bring them on a paper plate or in a box.

The Winter Festival runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Admission is $2 for PNA members, $4 for the general public, and please bring a can of food for the Greenwood Food Bank. Children 12 and under are free.

This weekend marks the 30th annual Winter Festival and Crafts Fair at the Phinney Neighborhood Association. The festival is expected to attract more than 4,000 people who will do their holiday shopping amongst the 120 juried crafts booths. There’s also live entertainment all weekend long.

The Winter Festival runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Admission is $2 for PNA members, $4 for the general public, plus a can of food for local food banks. Children 12 and under are free.

You’ll find practical gifts from handmade hats and scarves to whimsical toys and garden art. And hundreds of PNA members have donated handmade goodies for the bake sale. Lunch and espresso also are available in the brick building. Enter the handmade quilt raffle for $1. Drawing will be at 4 p.m. Sunday.

But shopping is only one aspect of the Winter Festival. Equally important is the entertainment. It’s hard to resist music that ranges from Sousa to Marimba. Sedentary Sousa players, Appalachian cloggers, blue grass musicians and Middle Eastern belly dancers will all find their way to one of two stages during the weekend.

Since its beginning, the Winter Festival has served as a fundraiser for the Association…Funds raised help to support a variety of PNA programs such as two soup kitchens, before and after school child care, the art gallery, a tool lending library, community projects for neighbors in need, and a number of community building outreach events.

Check out the Winter Festival website for a complete list of vendors and their locations, plus the entertainment schedule.

The Greenwood Senior Center at 525 N. 85th St. is once again selling home-made pies through the holiday season.

Order your holiday pies and support the senior center at the same time. Each week there will be a different selection and flavors including peach, berry, assorted cream pies, apple cider and of course holiday favorites – pumpkin and pecan! Nothing says holiday like a delicious home baked pie. Beginning in October, you can order your pies to be picked up each week. This year, some of the fruit was from the City Fruit 2010 harvest. Truly a local endeavor!

The Senior Center also has a Pie Making 101 Workshop from 6-8 p.m. this Friday. Instructor Janice Bellotti-Pace will teach participants some techniques to consistently turn out great pies. Pre-register by calling 206-297-0875. $10 for Phinney Neighborhood Association members, $15 general public.

In another sign of the approach of Halloween, Jason Lescott’s 18-foot-tall Greenwood Reaper has been resurrected on the corner of NW 76th Street and 3rd Avenue NW.

Learn more here about what went into building this creature, should you be considering building one of your own.

What great displays are you seeing in Greenwood and Phinney Ridge? Post an address and send us a photo we can post for everyone to see.

As Memorial Day Weekend approaches, you should be aware of a number of events, closures and reasons for major traffic backups.

The 39th annual Northwest Folklife Festival is Friday through Monday at the Seattle Center. Traffic on Aurora Avenue/Highway 99 will be congested, and parking will be difficult, so consider taking the bus or riding your bike. (And the Mariners play the Minnesota Twins at 7:10 p.m. Monday at Safeco Field, so getting downtown will be extra challenging.)

If you’re interested in catching a Phinney-Greenwood act at Folklife, you’ve got plenty to choose from. Our post earlier this week on two local acts elicited a bunch of comments, with dates and times that other local acts are performing.

Most Seattle Parks and Recreation facilities will be closed on Friday for a furlough day (and all facilities will be closed on Monday for the holiday). Parks administrative offices will also be closed on Tuesday.

These facilities and services are closed on Friday, May 28:

• Grounds maintenance
• Community centers (except child care and late night programs, which will still operate).
• Swimming pools
• Environmental Learning Centers
• Lifelong Recreation (except Food and Fitness programs, which will still operate)
• Business Service Center

In addition to recreation facilities being closed, there will be no trash pick-up on Friday, May 28, nor will the bathrooms be cleaned and maintained that day. Normal park maintenance will occur throughout the remainder of the weekend. On Memorial Day, limited park maintenance staff will be on duty to empty trash cans and clean restrooms.

“We’ve done everything we can to limit the impacts of the furlough on our patrons, customers and visitors; however, the public will experience parks with diminished maintenance on Friday, May 28,” said Christopher Williams, Acting Superintendent. “If park patrons encounter overflowing trash cans, we encourage you to pack out your own trash. We are asking the community to help us keep our parks clean on the few days this year that we are not able to clean them ourselves.”

On Sunday, the Fremont Criterium Bike Race starts at 10:20 a.m. More than 500 riders are expected to race the triangular closed course on North Canal Street, Phinney Avenue North, and North 35th Street. Those streets will be closed from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Childish Things, a children’s new and resale store at 10002 Holman Road NW, will be closed on Memorial Day for “a little store remodeling.” (If you know of other Greenwood-Phinney stores that will be closed for Memorial Day, please put a note in comments.)

Neighborhood Service Centers, including the Greenwood office, will be closed on Monday, as well as Tuesday for an unpaid furlough day.

The organizers of the neighborhood Wacktastic Holiday Light Show have been so busy with the holidays, they finally just had time to send us pictures and the list of winners, which were awarded on Dec. 20.

The winner of the community voting, with 883 votes, was Toby Hilden at 731 N. 88th St.

Second prize was Karl Picard at 6819 Phinney Ave. N., with 782 votes.

And third prize was Deborah Marlott at 8737-8735 Greenwood Ave. N., with 562 votes.

Click here to see more entries in this year’s contest. Congratulations to all the winners!

We’re not rushing you, but at some point you’re going to have to let go of that tree drying out in your front window.

When that time comes, you can put your tree(s) and greens out on your regular yard waste collection day at no extra charge through Jan. 10. Trees should be cut into sections of six feet long or shorter, with branches trimmed to less than four feet. Sections should be bundled with string or twine.

Flocked trees and those that still have tinsel or ornaments on them will be collected as extra garbage. Those trees will need to be cut into three-foot pieces and each piece will cost you $7.60 in extra garbage charges.

You can also drop off your tree and other holiday greenery for free at the north or south Seattle Public Utilities Stations.  The closest to Phinney/Greenwood is in Fremont at 34th Street and Carr Place North. It’s open daily from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. More info here.

I don’t know how other neighborhood businesses fared with last-minute shoppers today, but Santoros Books was absolutely packed when we were there this morning. That was probably because Stephanie Luckerath, Santoro’s resident storyteller, held a special Christmas Eve story time from 11 a.m. to noon.

Here’s Steph exuberantly reading Lemony Snickett’s “The Latke Who Couldn’t Stop Screaming: A Christmas Story,” while wearing her Grinch jammies. And, yes, she did some pretty enthusiastic screaming.

NORAD’s Santa Tracker is following Santa’s progress on his way to the Phinney/Greenwood area. This year’s tracker is quite the experience, with an interactive map containing pictures, background information and even explanatory videos (one in Fuji, Japan, explains that NORAD satellite technicians have calculated Santa’s speed at 100 times that of Japan’s bullet train).

With any luck, maybe he’ll be bringing us some of the gifts you’ve suggested for our community. Hope you’ve all been good boys and girls!

We got a note this morning from Margaret:

This morning I found open packaging and mail. Some mail was not opened but the holiday cards clearly were. This looks like it was all stolen from people’s porches and mail boxes.

These items came from addresses in the 92nd-95th blocks in the Dayton Ave N, Evanston and N 92nd area. Packaging was Amazon. I will be making an attempt to contact the addressees on the envelopes this evening, 12/23/09.

I called the non emergency police # and was told they could not do anything about the items I found until the owners made the report. I can be contacted by email at mwilliamson9750@hotmail.com.

Santa Claus dropped by Yanni’s Greek Restaurant at 7419 Greenwood Ave. N. on Sunday for a quick visit.

Peter tells us there weren’t too many kids, but the adults sure seemed happy to see him!

We got a note (and picture) from Marty this morning about carolers on the corner of 80th and 3rd Sunday night.

Last night around 8:30, my wife and I were watching a movie. The scene we were watching had Christmas carolers in it. About that time I thought I heard something so I asked my wife to pause the movie. Sure enough, there was a group of carolers on the corner near our apartment. My wife took them out some Christmas cupcakes and found out that they had been at a party and decided to go caroling.