Artist Bob Lizza explains the mural process at a recent reception at the Dietrich Theater celebrating the completion of the Telling Wyoming County’s History Mural Project.
                                 Submitted photo

Artist Bob Lizza explains the mural process at a recent reception at the Dietrich Theater celebrating the completion of the Telling Wyoming County’s History Mural Project.

Submitted photo

At the Dietrich Theater in Tunkhannock we have two important things on our mind that we want to tell you about — Christmas cookies and Christmas movies! Yes.

Can you help us out by baking a few dozen cookies for our Cookie Walk, which will be held on Friday, Dec. 3, from 5 to 9 p.m., and Saturday, Dec. 4, from 11 a.m. until they are all sold? This year the cookies will be preboxed and assorted. Let us know by calling Nancy Aiello at 570-836-1988 if you can help bake.

The Cookie Walk was canceled last year because of COVID-19, but this year it is coming back to life by offering the cookies prepackaged. This fundraiser enables the Dietrich Theater to offer free preschool classes and many other programs that we offer, thanks to the Dietrich Fundraising Committee.

For the last 20 years, we have brought the beloved film “It’s a Wonderful Life” to our screens, our gift to the community that has supported us all those years. Jean Ruhf, Executive Director of the Endless Mountains Visitors Bureau, came up with the suggestion that we have a Christmas festival of movies last year. Our Dietrich team loved her idea so much that they dreamed up The Dietrich Theater’s 12 Movies of Christmas, and it is back again this year from Dec. 3 to 16.

All showings will be free, because of so many local companies, individuals and organizations that have sponsored them. Please check our website at www.dietrictheater.com or pick up our brochure available at the Dietrich to see all the movies and sponsors.

If coming to “It’s a Wonderful Life” is your yearly Christmas tradition, mark Dec. 14 on your calendar. Ace-Robbins is the lead sponsor of all the showings at 2 p.m., 7 p.m. and 8 p.m., and for free popcorn and soda. Ace-Robbins is also the sponsor of free soda and popcorn for all of the Christmas movies shown during Tunkhannock’s Christmas in our Hometown on Dec. 3 and 4. We are so grateful to Ace-Robbins for their generosity to our community over the last several years.

Eleven more Christmas movies are onscreen Dec. 3 to 16, a mixture of old favorites like “White Christmas” with Bing Crosby and “The Bishop’s Wife” with Cary Grant and newer favorites like “A Christmas Story,” “Elf” and “Polar Express.”

I will make sure to see “Elf,” the hilarious story starring Will Ferrell as the most unlikely elf you will ever see.

The other films are “Black Christmas,” “The Family Man,” “The Grinch,” “Jack Frost,” “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation,” and “Office Christmas Party.” Can you believe all of them are free?

If you are looking for good movies before The 12 Movies of Christmas, the Dietrich has several for you. “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” is onscreen now. It tells of the strange things happening to your favorite characters in the old farmhouse one has inherited and how they discover the history of the original ghostbusters.

Fun for the whole family!

Another film for the whole family is Disney’s “Encanto,” the story of a charmed place where everyone is blessed with a special gift, but little Mirabel ends up saving them all. Enchanting film for everyone young at heart!

For the mature audience, Lady Gaga and Adam Driver star in “House of Gucci,” a dramatized version of the events surrounding the 1995 murder of Maurizio Gucci, the head of the Gucci fashion house, and a peek into the dynamic of the Gucci family. Sounds so intriguing.

What will bring you to the Dietrich? Remember the popcorn is always popping, the movies are always showing on four screens, the exhibits will always amaze you, and we will always be so glad to welcome you.