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McKinley Christmas showcases historic buildings

Free trolley service will shuttle visitors to three locations

NILES — The fourth annual A McKinley Christmas will be noon to 4 p.m. Saturday with holiday activities for people of all ages planned at three historic buildings in downtown Niles.

The free event is being presented by McKinley Birthplace Home, National McKinley Birthplace Memorial and Niles Historical Society. The day’s activities will include tours of the McKinley Birthplace Home, McKinley Memorial Museum and Ward-Thomas Museum.

At the three locations will include visits with Santa Claus, crafts for children, holiday entertainment and refreshments.

A free trolley transport system will take people between the three locations.

The Salvation Army canteen will be in the parking lot behind the McKinley memorial with free chocolate, coffee and cookies.

Michelle Alleman, director of the McKinley Memorial Library, said the event has been very popular in the past three years it has been held with a successful collaboration between the library and the Niles Historical Society, which operates out of the Ward-Thomas Museum.

“We have had several hundred people attending each year,” she said.

She said the McKinley Birthplace Home has been closed for the past sixth months but will be open again for the celebration. Alleman said actors will portray historical figures in the home for the guided tours.

Niles Community Services has provided ornaments and gift ideas for children for the Giving Tree in the library. The public can stop by the library and take a name from the tree and then bring a wrapped present for the selected child to the library. The present then will be delivered to Niles Community Services, an agency that is a registered dropoff site for the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve’s annual Toys for Tots campaign, a program that distributes toys to children whose parents cannot afford to buy them gifts for Christmas.

Sandy Bilovesky, president of the Niles Historical Society, said the home has been decorated inside and outside for the holidays. In addition to Annette Batovskly’s collection of Christmas salt and pepper shakers, the museum will be decorated with Christmas villages and White House ornaments.

Alleman, who will mark her one-year anniversary as director in January, said she looks forward to 2017, which also will be the centennial for the McKinley Memorial with events being planned to celebrate the milestone in the city.

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