MARION — The Holiday Stroll might have already passed, but the holiday spirit certainly hasn’t, as various community groups showed on Dec. 14.

The First Congregational Church of Marion held their luncheon and cookie walk late morning and early afternoon.

Susan Kenny served as head organizer for the event. She said the group had 27 different types of cookies, with about 3 dozen of each.

For non-cookie food, cooks worked to assemble casseroles Friday night, and then baked them and started on the sauces at 8 a.m. on Saturday.

She said the lunch usually gets about 100 people for the luncheon and cookie walk, but that the rain could either draw people in or drive them away.

The Sippican Woman’s Club also hosted a holiday house tour, with four houses, one yacht club and various other locations around town open with Christmas decorations.

Those manning the welcome table at Handy’s Tavern said “considering the rain the turnout for the event has been very good.”

The dining room of one of the Pleasant Street houses on the tour served as the first schoolhouse in Marion, and still does not have electricity.

Asked, why she wanted to host, owner Bonnie Jeanne said, “I thought it would be nice. It’s kind of a unique house in the village.”

Nancy Hunter Denny decorated her home on South Street for the tour, including beautiful arrangements with lilies and a bird-themed tree outside. 

She opened her home because the woman’s club “had given my kids a scholarship. I very much appreciated the acknowledgement of their academic achievements. I have always enjoyed the tour, and it only happens if people open up their homes and put effort in,” Hunter Dennis said. 

Mary Jane McCoy said that she had hosted at her Cross Neck Road home 18 years ago. She decided to host again because the club “gave my youngest daughter a scholarship four years in a row,” and because, “it’s such a great cause.”

Visitors at her home could also tour her studio upstairs, and McCoy had many of her paintings for sale.

Barbara Shingleton did not have children who got the scholarship, but thought her 1912 house on Point Road was a great example of preservation, and a piece of it is Marion history.

“People enjoy seeing houses, and it seemed neighborly to” host, said Shingleton. 

The Marion Art Center also hosted its Holiday Shop on its first level. The organization’s Executive Director Jodi Stevens said that the event was going well.