A Last-Minute Christmas Survival Guide

The Mentor Public Library will be closed Wednesday and Thursday for Christmas Eve and Christmas, respectively.

We hope you have all the holidays books, movies and music you need; but, if you're left in a lurch these next two days, we can still help. After all, our digital services are always available—even when our branches are closed.

We've also compiled some seasonally appropriate lists to help you navigate our digital collections.

If you're looking for Christmas music, you can download it from Freegal or stream it on Hoopla.

If you're looking for holidays specials that you can stream to any device, check out our Hoopla and IndieFlix playlists.

Finally, if you're looking for something to read, here are 12 of our favorite seasonal short stories and novels, some of which are available as eBooks via OverDrive or as audiobooks on Hoopla.

And, as always, all of our digital services are free with a Mentor Public Library card.

Thank you for your continued support and we hope you and your family have a Merry Christmas!

Holiday House Party at Mentor Library

Laci carefully places each M&M on her graham-cracker home.

What's the best way to follow up making gingerbread men? How about giving them graham-cracker homes?

We had a special story time on Monday at our Main Branch. Kids listened as Ms. Mary read them The Gingerbread Pirates by Kristin Kladstrup.

Then the children constructed homes using graham crackers for walls and roofs and frosting as spackling paste. Finally, they decorated them with M&Ms, gumdrops, marshmallows, gummy bears and candy canes.

Alex dots the roof with gumdrops.

We still have more holiday programs coming at all three of our branches. You can come to our special Christmas Rhyme Time on Dec. 23 at our Mentor-on-the-Lake Branch.

On Monday, Dec. 29, we’ll be using recycled greeting cards to make holiday villages at our Main Branch.

The party continues in 2015 with our Year in Review program on Jan. 2 and the New Year’s party for our Teen Book Club on Jan. 3 at our Mentor-on-the-Lake Branch.

You can check out more of our programs and register for them on our event calendar. If you have any questions, you can always call Mentor Library at 440-255-8811.

Jaydon simultaneously smiles, shows off his graham-cracker house and blocks his younger sister out of the frame.

For more photos from our holiday house party, visit our Facebook page.

Bright, shiny and new children's area

It's a whole new look for our children's area.

When is the last time you've visited our children's area on the second floor of our Main Branch?

If it's been more than a month or two, you may not recognize it.

Thanks to volunteers from Selman & Co. and St. Gabriel Parish, it has a fresh coat of paint. And we just finished installing new carpet (which also involved moving a lot of books.)

You may have noticed this guy, as well...

He looked hungrier when he got here.

We want to thank all of you for being so accommodating these last few weeks. We know it's been difficult to navigate our children's area with certain spots cordoned. But now all of our shelves are open for browsing once again!

And the makeover isn't finished yet. You'll be noticing some more changes in 2015—all with the goal of making Mentor Library a fun place to share with your children and grandchildren.

We hope you like the new look, and you're going to love what we have in store!

Streaming Christmas Music with Hoopla

Do you need some Christmas music to set the mood for your all-day gift-wrapping marathon?

We have you covered.

With Hoopla and your Mentor Library card, you can stream up to 10 different albums for free each month. And they have an enormous catalog of Christmas music from which you can choose.

Here are some of your favorites, but feel free to browse around the Hoopla site and see what they have.

(By the way, if you don’t know how to use Hoopla, you can check out this video tutorial that one of our librarians made.)

1. White Christmas (40 Unforgettable Classics)

There are hundreds of Christmas compilations with different legends singing different standards. This is one of the best. You want Bing Crosby and Billie Holiday? You want Peggy Lee and Elvis? You want "White Christmas" and "Ave Maria?" This album has you covered—40 classics from the artists you want to hear sing them.

2. The Ultimate Motown Christmas

The Jackson 5 singing "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town," Stevie Wonder singing "Ave Maria," The Supremes singing "Joy to the World," Four Tops, Johnny Gill, Marvin Gaye, even the Funk Brothers playing "Winter Wonderland"—after all, it's not Christmas without some soul. Speaking of which, Aretha Franklin and Patti LaBelle also have Christmas albums you can stream via Hoopla.

3. Bing Crosby Sings Christmas Songs

For a generation, Bing Crosby's "White Christmas" is the Christmas song, but Bing has more classics than that in his catalog. Hear him sing everything from "Adeste Fideles" to "The Christmas Song." And if you're in the mood for a Rat Pack Christmas, check out holiday albums from Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and the whole gang.

4. Muppet Christmas Carol: Special Edition

I'm not saying the Muppets own Christmas, but you could make a pretty awesome holiday playlist just using Muppets soundtracks.

5. A Charlie Brown Christmas

The only downside to listening to Vince Guaraldi's classic soundtrack is you won't be able to get "Linus and Lucy" out of your head for a couple of days. You're probably humming it already. If you're looking for other kid-friendly Christmas albums, try Veggie Tales' A Very Veggie Christmas.

6. Christmastime in Larryland

Meanwhile, this one's definitely not for the kids. But sometimes you just want to hear Larry the Cable Guy fart "Jingle Bells." If you need more blue-collar Christmas, Bill Engvall has you covered.

7. Christmas with the Ray Brown Trio

Ray Brown's been playing bass longer than most people have been doing anything, and this album's perfect for jazz fans who will snap if they hear "Run, Run Rudolph" one more time. For more Christmas jazz, check out Ray Brown's old bandmate Oscar Peterson.

8. This Is Christmas (Elvis Presley Performing Timeless Christmas Classics)

If Bing owns "White Christmas," then nobody sang "Blue Christmas" like the King. He also has a beautiful version of "Peace in the Valley."

9. Bach: Advent & Christmas Cantatas

For lovers of classical music or for those who need background music during Christmas dinner. More classical Christmas: The Royal Philharmonic take on seasonal standards.

10. Christmas Grass Too

A sweet compilation of bluegrass Christmas songs that includes Dolly Parton, Charlie Daniels, the Larkins and more. For more Christmas country, try Alan Jackson's Let It Be Christmas.

11. Phineas and Ferb Holiday Favorites

"I Really Don't Hate Christmas" is probably my favorite Christmas song. Thank you, Dr. Doofenshmirtz.

12. An All-4-One Christmas

You'll know almost exactly how old I am if I admit that I used to have this on cassette.

Hoopla also streams video. Check out 12 Christmas specials you can watch on Hoopla right now for free if you have a Mentor Library card.

Holidays at the Branches

Kids show off the holiday gifts they made during our annual Christmas program at our Headlands Branch.

A lot of our posts lately have been about holiday programs at our Main Branch on Mentor Avenue, but we've been getting into the spirit at our Headlands and Mentor-on-the-Lake Branches too.

On Thursday, we had our annual Christmas program at our Headlands Branch.

We sang songs and read stories—including a personal favorite, "Oh, What a Christmas" by Michael Garland—while the kids made Santa stars, candy cane holders and other ornaments.

Ms. Terris helps one of the kids decorate his Christmas tree.

Meanwhile, we had a Countdown to Christmas at our Lake Branch on Saturday.

Kids made Christmas countdown calendars, sang carols and played a holiday version of Bingo.

Children work on their Christmas calendars (that count to 25.)

We still have more holiday programs coming at all three of our branches. You can come to our special Christmas Rhyme Time on Dec. 23 at our Mentor-on-the-Lake Branch.

On Monday, Dec. 29, we'll be using recycled greeting cards to make holiday villages at our Main Branch.

The party continues in 2015 with our Year in Review program on Jan. 2 and the New Year's party for our Teen Book Club on Jan. 3 at our Mentor-on-the-Lake Branch.

You can check out more of our programs and register for them on our event calendar. If you have any questions, you can always call Mentor Library at 440-255-8811.

It's a Santa star!

Meet our newest board member

MPL's newest board member, Terri Mervo, introduces herself during the Board of Trustees meeting Wednesday.

We have our newest trustee.

The Mentor Board of Education has chosen Terri Mervo to serve on our Board of Trustees. She will fill the position that opened when Terry Kilbourne announced his retirement after 16 years on the board.

Terri came to our Board meeting Wednesday to introduce herself, but the introduction was hardly necessary. She's been coming to Mentor Public Library for decades—first with her daughter, now with her grandchildren.

Her term begins Jan. 1, 2015 and will run through Dec. 31, 2021.

Terri and her husband have lived in Mentor for 40 years. She had worked at Mentor Public Schools for much of that time and is now retired.

“I have always been an advocate of our public library and am extremely excited to have the opportunity to serve our community on its behalf,” Terri said. “I truly believe in the importance of providing this invaluable resource for people of all ages to enjoy and find enrichment.”

At the same meeting in which we said hello to Terri Mervo, we said good-bye to Terry Kilbourne. (Well, not goodbye. I suspect Terry will still be a frequent visitor. After all, everybody needs a good book sometimes.) While we'll miss Terry and can never thank him enough, we're grateful for all he's done.

And we're also excited to welcome Terri aboard!

Drawing with Olaf and Studio MPL

This is Olaf. He likes warm hugs.

You want to know how to get kids excited about something? Find a way to incorporate Frozen.

Our young artists from Studio MPL practiced their drawing by using their favorite snowman, Olaf, as a model.

Studio MPL is our art club for kids in first through fifth grade. Each month they try something different: making sun catchers, painting sunsets, weaving and even trying out some of Jackson Pollock's techniques.

This month, they practiced drawing. By breaking it down into steps, they transformed familiar geometric shapes into Olaf.

Maria learns how to combine simple shapes to make more complicated characters.

This was our last Studio MPL meeting of the year, but it will be back again in January.

Next month’s session will be Jan. 19 at our Main Branch. (Yes, we're open on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.) You can register for it here.

Studio MPL meets on the third Monday of each month. If your kid likes art—any kind of art—they can join the fun!

For more photos from our Studio MPL session, check out our Facebook page. For more information on programs and events for children, teens and adults at Mentor Public Library, visit www.mentorpl.org.

Giselle offers some drawing tips to Taryn during Studio MPL. One of the great things about our art club is that the kids can help one another.