Chris Treadway: National Park Service hosts holiday festivities in Richmond

By Chris Treadway
Contra Costa Times
Posted:   11/30/2012 04:10:27 PM PST
Updated:   11/30/2012 05:38:12 PM PST

The Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Historical Park is offering holiday cheer and entertainment at its first-ever Holidays on the Home Front events on two Saturdays in December.
The first is 1 to 4 p.m. Dec. 8 at the historic Maritime Center at 1014 Florida Ave. at Harbour Way in Richmond.
The recently restored center is an ideal site for the family festivities, having hosted similar events during the war when it was a child care facility for defense workers at the Kaiser shipyards.
The National Park Service will have holiday crafts for young people; holiday songs from the war-era sung by members of the Contra Costa Chorale; a story time on the traditions of Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa; free gently used books for children from West County Reads; and a cookie exchange. Families are encouraged to bring two dozen homemade holiday cookies for the cookie swap.
The second Holidays on the Home Front celebration will be 1 to 4 p.m. Dec. 15 at the new Rosie the Riveter Visitor Center by the Craneway Pavilion at 1414 Harbour Way South in Richmond.
The center itself is worth a visit, and the day will feature more crafts and cookie exchanges, multicultural story time and book giveaway, as well as a "green screen" that will allow families to pose with a backdrop of historic photographs and make their own holiday cards.
Both events are free, but reservations are required by sending an email to lucien_sonder@nps.gov by Wednesday.