The Greater East Hampton Chamber of Commerce is excited to announce a wonderful holiday event to kick off the holiday season on Saturday December 2nd. The East Hampton Holiday Celebration begins with Santa touching down in Herrick Park via Helicopter at 10 a.m., courtesy of the PBA. Santa’s arrival will be accompanied by the Dressen’s food truck providing free doughnuts and hot cocoa to all of Santa’s fans. The annual Santa Parade will follow at 11 a.m. featuring floats from community groups, marching bands and of course, Santa and Mrs. Claus on the holiday sleigh. Following the parade, a complimentary holiday movie will be screened at the Regal theater on Main Street at 1 p.m. Mrs. Claus will be greeting visitors at the Ladies Village Improvement Society from 2 – 4 p.m.

An exciting new addition to the Holiday Celebration is the first annual Village Holiday Market. Held on the front lawn of East Hampton Village Hall at the corner of Huntting Lane and Main Street, the market will offer an array of holiday greenery, decorations and treats as well as an assortment of specially crafted gingerbread houses from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. East Hampton Kitchen will offer homemade holiday cookie tins and seasonal soups available for purchase. Gingerbread house replicas of Mulford Farm, Village Hall and candy land will be on display and raffled off at the Holiday Market at 4:30 p.m. by Mayor Larsen. Raffle tickets will be available for purchase at The Palm, White’s Pharmacy and The Monogram shop where the gingerbread houses will be on display. Proceeds from the Holiday Market will be donated to the East Hampton Food Pantry. The Holiday Market is funded by the East Hampton Village Foundation.

The lawn of The Hunting Inn on Main Street will be transformed into an ice skating rink offering complimentary ice skating, including skates, from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m., made possible by Landry’s. The East Hampton middle school choral group, the Bonnettes, will perform a concert of holiday favorites at 3:45 p.m. on the Village Hall lawn. Additionally, John Pappas, Cittanouva, Tutto Caffe and The Palm will offer lunch and dinner specials in honor of the holiday kick off. The ARF adoption truck will be parked behind Village Hall with dogs, cats, puppies and kittens available for adoption into their forever homes. Finally to cap off the holiday celebration there will be a tree lighting adjacent from the East Hampton post office on Gay Lane at 5 p.m.