Stone Village on display in Holiday Cookie Tour

© 2019 Telegraph Publishing LLC

Ringing in the festive holiday season, from noon to 4 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 8, visitors will have the chance to tour eight decorated homes and the Stone Church in Chester’s historic Stone Village, enjoying homemade cookies and good company.

Now in its third year, the Chester Holiday Cookie Tour invites visitors to get acquainted with one of the town’s two historic districts and the folks who live there. In 2017 and 2018, the Cookie Tour was held along the Main Street historic district.

The Stone Village, first settled in the 1700s, became populated in the early 1800s with 20 homes, four stores, grist and saw mills, a church, a school, a post office and two taverns, many created out of local gneiss and sparkling mica schist.

Among the sites featured in this year’s tour are four of the remaining stone homes including the North Street Schoolhouse. Also included are the Grist Mill, the 1803 red brick Heald House on First Avenue and the Stone Church. The Stone Church will also play host to an art show put on by the Stone Village Art Guild.  Also on the tour is new, energy efficiency home replacing a tavern that burned in 2012.

Mother’s Candy Cane Cookies, Oatmeal Cranberry White Chocolate Chunk Cookies, Dark Chocolate Crackles and Marzipan-Stuffed Almond Sugar Cookies are among the many treats to be sampled.

All you need to attend is the official passport, which includes descriptions of each site as well as recipes for the cookies. Passports are available for $10 at the Southern Pie Cafe, 94 Common St. (on the Green) in Chester. They are open daily until 5 p.m.

Proceeds from the passport goes to support the Chester-Andover Family Center and toward putting on next year’s Overture to Christmas events for children and senior citizens, including crafts events, a visit from Santa Claus and the Senior Christmas Dinner.

The Cookie Tour is limited to 150 participants and has sold out in the past. For more information, call Cynthia Prairie at 802-875-2703.