Rosendale’s annual Frozendale celebration returns to Main Street this Saturday, December 12. It officially runs from 12 noon to 6 p.m., but some downtown businesses will get on the festive bandwagon much earlier, with the Alternative Baker handing out free hot cider and cookies beginning at 7 a.m.
At 9 a.m., the ImmuneSchein Tea Haus will offer tea and cookies; Victoria Gardens will give out free treats as well, and conduct wreathmaking lessons on the half-hour until 6 p.m. Yoga Yoga will raise funds for refugees in Europe with a 9:30 a.m. class and a crafts fair from 12 noon to 4 p.m. At 10 a.m. the Rosendale Library will open its Holiday Booktique, and Ann Van Damm will read holiday stories for children there until 10:30. A tattoo art show will open at 11 a.m. at Guts ’n’ Glory Ink, and rumor has it that a wild Krampus will be lurking about the premises.
Frozendale’s annual Winter Gift Sale gets underway at 12 noon at the Creative Co-op and TRANSnDANCEnDRUM. Santa Claus and his elves will hold court at Bill Brooks’s Barber Shop, from which free hayrides will depart every half-hour from 12 to 2 p.m. Also at noon, Visions of Tibet will offer tea and raffles, cookie-decorating will begin at the Rosendale Café and the Town of Rosendale will repeat its annual tradition of handing out free collectible mugs decorated with the municipal logo and filled with hot cocoa.
At 1 p.m. the Garden House will begin selling stuffed baked potatoes for $3 each, cooked in the wood-fired outdoor hearth in the restaurant’s front garden. At 2 p.m. you have your choice of catching a free matinée screening of Who Framed Roger Rabbit? at the Rosendale Theatre or bringing your pet into the Paws & Tail Pantry for a pawprint mold.
Happy Hour at the 1850 House starts at 4 p.m., as will the Redwing Blackbird Theater’s puppet performance, a 30-minute Lenape tale adapted from the book Rainbow Crow. Half an hour later the Rosendale Improvement Association Brass Band and Social Club will begin cranking out the Dixieland tunes in front of TRANSnDANCEnDRUM, then lead the line of march to by the Big Cheese for the annual Mac & Cheese Bake-Off.
Anyone can enter and compete for the prizes donated by local businesses; you just have to fill out an entry form and drop off your cheesy masterpiece between 4:30 and 4:50 p.m. Taste-testing gets underway at 5 p.m. sharp, and spectators are invited to consume all the entries after the winners are announced. For Bake-Off entry forms, e-mail frozendale2011@gmail.com. You can also use that address if you’re interested in volunteering for the event.
For more details on Frozendale 2015, visit www.facebook.com/frozendale-in-rosendale-121215-854340541275188/?pnref=story.
Join the family! 
