Check out the events around the area to celebrate the new year.

From kids activities and scavenger hunts to comedy shows and burlesque, there is something going on for all ages and tastes to ring in 2009 around Richmond.

For all of its conspicuous consumption, America has a firm foundation in generosity, especially during the holiday season. At a relatively early age, we recognize that it’s better to give than to receive.

Since 1998 Richmond Times-Dispatch’s Gregory J. Gilligan has worked as a retail clerk during the holidays to give readers a look at what the job entails. This year he was Santa’s helper at Bass Pro Shops. SLIDESHOW

The Richmond Times-Dispatch’s holiday-card contest attracted more than five dozen entries from children who clearly have embraced the holiday spirit. Check out the Video: Homemade Hallmark.

Two weeks before Thanksgiving, Bruce Kern began hitting up all of his friends with vans. It takes quite a fleet to transport 97 large Rubbermaid boxes containing 2,500 Christmas ornaments from a storage unit on Brook Road to Kern’s home on Hanover Avenue in Richmond’s Fan District. SLIDESHOW: Bruce Kern’s “problem” with Christmas

Maybe you’re the type of person who starts listening to Christmas music Nov. 20. You know, to get you in the mood for the holiday decorations you plan to have tacked and hung by Thanksgiving eve.  You probably don’t need to read this story. 

Families cherish their cookie-baking traditions during the holiday season.  Watch a video our newsroom chefs mak easy holiday cookies.

Santa’s flight was a bit late, but the kids never seemed to notice. When the open-cockpit 1942 Boeing Stearman finally taxied in a little before 11 a.m. yesterday, a couple of dozen youngsters lining the tarmac at Chesterfield County Airport gave a hearty cheer.

There is nothing like the holidays for movies like “Nothing Like the Holidays,“ stories about families reuniting with plenty of laughter and just a few tears. Sometimes, they’re enough to make you gag. But “Nothing Like the Holidays” is better than most.

For those who feel blessed by the animal company they keep, there was payback with howl to spare yesterday. Approximately 100 people, most with dogs in tow, joined three mounted Richmond police officers at the Shockoe Slip fountain in Richmond at noon for the annual blessing of the animals. The free-spirited event included an official invocation—from a reverend who’s a dog breeder, of course—holiday music from local favorite Susan Greenbaum and enough good-spirited canine cheer to get through the season. The event was arranged by The Friends of the Richmond Mounted Squad.

Tuckahoe is a working plantation that includes a circa-1733 house, the schoolhouse where Thomas Jefferson studied as a youth, original outbuildings, 600-plus acres and a spectacular view of the James River. Yet it’s not what most Richmonders think of when they hear “Tuckahoe.“ SLIDESHOW: Tuckahoe Plantation Holiday Tour

Dolphus Vest proposed to Shannon McConnell on a horse-drawn carriage during last year’s Christmas celebration at Maymont in Richmond. McConnell said yes.

Only weeks before Christmas and all through the house
All the creatures were frantic, including the mouse.

Anastasia Johnson shared a chair with her best friend, Chalise Lewis, and got the VIP view of classic cars, riders on horseback, and a yellow dancing dragon carried by nine helpers in yesterday’s Christmas Parade in downtown Richmond.