I love winter events because they help break up the cold, dark months of the year, but there is such a crowding of events between Thanksgiving and the New Year that it gets a bit frenzied, but that is how the calendar is laid out in our country, so we deal with it year after year. 

That was how it used to be at NoVES too. When my family first joined NoVES, there was a fall festival just before Thanksgiving and a winter festival just before the winter solstice. The last festival was is always some time in the spring.

I don't remember the year, but about a decade ago NoVES was ready for it's winter festival the week before school's winter break, but we got a notification from the school that there had been a flood in the school the night before and we wouldn't be able to use the school next day.

There was nothing we could do except to call off the festival until after the New Year. 

Initially, we were all sad that everything had to be delayed and we were sad about moving our festival further away from winter solstice, but the flip side to it was that members got a break in the schedule by not forcing another event into a packed December. And having a winter festival in January is definitely celebrating it in winter and the side benefit is that more people could attend (weather permitting) and it makes it less like the religious holidays in December. It is truly celebrating winter. The darkness is beginning to lift as we experience more light.

So what started as an unfortunate event turned into a positive change for the society.

There are other winter events NoVES will be hosting and participating in. I hope to see you there.