A Treat for Both Lovers and Non-Lovers of Gingerbread

Many of the children who will listen to Monrovia librarian Melinda Steep probably won’t like gingerbread, “but it makes a nice name for the program,” she says.

The Gingerbread Tea at the Monrovia Public Library this Saturday will have plenty of cookies and punch for the non-gingerbread types. It will also feature an hour of stories like “Bah Humbug,” featuring a little boy who sets a trap for Santa Claus, Hanukkah stories, and a short film called “Morris’s Disappearing Bag,” about a mischievous rabbit.

“We already did the ‘Night Before Christmas’ last year,” Steep explained of the quirky selections.

Steep, who has done the Gingerbread Tea each December for four of the six years it’s been in existence, also uses a “cut and tell” game while telling some stories--cutting paper into fold-out shapes that highlight the events of a story.

The children will also get to make ornaments using a bead-fusion method--beads are put on a board, then ironed to fuse them together.

The tea is one of the library’s “Saturday Specials,” a monthly children’s event relating to the appropriate holiday. When there’s a month with no particular holiday theme, Steep does stories from various cultures or throws Mad Hatter tea parties.

Steep expects about 150 kids at each of the two teas (11 a.m. and 2 p.m.) this Saturday. More children than that and it would get rather difficult for them to see the storytelling from books and the “cut and tell.”

Also, they might run out of gingerbread.

The Monrovia Public Library’s Gingerbread Tea is Sat., Dec. 18 at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. at 321 S. Myrtle Ave. Free and open to children of all ages (geared toward grades K-5). For more information , call (818) 385-0174.