Historic Lynnfield held the annual Country Store at the Meeting House this past Saturday, kicking off the winter holiday season with a celebration of a tradition that goes back generations.
According to Karen Nascembeni, Historic Lynnfield public relations officer, the Town-run Country Store featured “most of the traditional stuff,” including booths selling wreaths, ornaments, crochet work, and other craft vendors. Of course, there were also plenty of vendors selling food and holiday “penny” candy.
Nascembeni spearheaded the organization and prep work for this year’s Country Store. She has been involved with the Country Store for decades now; her late husband Stephen’s parents were among the founding organizers of the first Country Store 64 years ago. A photo of Stephen Nascembeni was the face of the Country Store in its materials this year, in honor of his long dedication to the event.
Karen Nascembeni is the chief operating officer at North Shore Music Theatre, and she was instrumental in arranging for Voices of Hope’s 10 a.m. choral performance to celebrate the holiday season. VOH is a popular local choir group that performs to raise money for cancer charities in the Boston area, including at NSMT.
Since 2013, VOH has raised over $1 million for the Henri and Belinda Termeer Center for Targeted Therapies at Mass General. It was started in 2009 by Greg Chastain, whose mother sadly passed away of pancreatic cancer during his opening week in a musical theater production of Aida. According to the Hirshberg Foundation for Pancreatic Cancer Research, it has the highest mortality rate of any cancer and is the third leading cause of cancer related deaths in the U.S.
VOH were later joined in their performance by Santa Claus, who bounded off Lynnfield Fire Department Ladder truck joined by LFD firefighters at 10:45 p.m. He entered the choir booth to finish out the performance with the charity. After his performance, Santa performed his traditional holiday season duties, meeting with Lynnfield children to collect their wish list letters and hear their Christmas wishes.
The Country Store was later host to a performance by violinist Natalia Morello at 1 p.m. That was followed shortly after by the Town’s Whobilation, a Dr. Seuss themed celebration attended by the Grinch and residents of Whoville, as well as local children and families. The day at Lynnfield Common closed with the annual Christmas Tree lighting at 4:45 p.m.
Nascembeni was struck by the beauty of the day.
“There a few magical moments, including the fact that it started to snow as soon as Santa arrived,” she said. “The music was especially touching this year, with performances by Voices of Hope — with the largest crowd I’ve ever seen upstairs in attendance — and Natalia Morello from Everett, the young violinist who performed so beautifully in the afternoon.”
In parallel with Historic Lynnfield’s Country Store, the Lynnfield Historical Society observed its own Country Store tradition at the home of Linda and Bob Gillon. The LHS was taking orders for crafts and ornaments, which were distributed from the Gillon’s as members of the Society relaxed and enjoyed their own good company.
Until it was cancelled due to COVID in December 2020, the LHS had been the organizing group behind the Country Store at the Meeting House; LHS ran it to raise money for local charities.
This year was no different, with all proceeds going to Citizen’s Inn Haven from Hunger, which serves Lynnfield and the wider North Shore community. Despite the somewhat fraught change of venue, they have not let their own tradition of giving back go by the wayside.
