Braving the cold chill of a December Saturday morning, the Farmingdale Beautification Committee volunteers and their families were not deterred from decorating the village for the holiday season. Over 25 people came out to decorate various areas around the village, including Village Hall, small trees down Main Street, over 27 entrance signs, gardens and railroad fences with handmade bows, natural garland, wreaths and lights.

Every holiday season, the Beautification Committee goes around the village of Farmingdale decorating everything from signs, light posts and fences to garden boxes and trees. This year they added two new additions to the front of Village Hall; two animated reindeer lit up by white lights in the Village Hall entrance garden.

"We had a lot of fun tying it all together and couldn't have done it without all the extra helping hands this year," said Sylvia Claase, chair of the Beautification Committee.

The committee would also like to thank the Farmingdale Chamber of Commerce members who contributed much of their personal time getting all the commercial decorations in place.

The committee is also appreciative of a tree and decoration contributed by the Women's Club, which is located in the North Main Garden outside Village Hall.

"It shows a wonderful community spirit," said Claase "the yearly decorating is becoming a growing community effort, and it's just great to see."

Volunteers also gathered from St. Luke's Lutheran Church to assist in the decorating as part of their community service projects.

The Beautification Committee gathers new strictly through fund raisers and donations. Last year they held fund raisers to buy a new tree topper star for the tree outside Village Hall, and this year raised money to purchase the two animated reindeer in front of Village Hall.

Some of the fundraisers the committee participates in include the adopt-a-tree-well project, selling geraniums over Memorial Day weekend and pumpkin sales during Columbus Day.

In addition to the fund raisers, the committee receives donations throughout the year which help them in their efforts. Some local merchants who don't actually have the time to adopt a tree-well and plant it themselves may donate money to the committee and committee members will plant the tree.

After a long morning of decorating parts of Farmingdale, volunteers congregated in the warmth of Village Hall and enjoyed cookies and hot chocolate donated by the Village Perk on Main Street.

Despite the cold weather, everybody had a good time and enjoyed decorating. From the Beautification Committee and its families, they would like to wish everybody a wonderful holiday season.