RUMFORD – Christmas revelers will have a chance this weekend to hear and see the sounds and sights of the season when the Rumford Association for the Advancement of the Performing Arts presents its 38th annual holiday show.

“Believe in the Spirit of the Season” will be performed by more than 70 singers and dancers at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, and 2 p.m. on Sunday at the Mountain Valley High School auditorium.

This year, said director Bob Bohren, the music will be drawn from Broadway shows, movies, and television Christmas specials such as “Snoopy’s Dance,” from a “Charlie Brown Christmas,” “Believe” and “The Spirit of the Season,” from the book and movie, “Polar Express,” and songs from “Frosty the Snowman,” and “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.” Even Bing Crosby’s famous “White Christmas,” from the movie “Holiday Inn,” and from his television specials will be performed.

“We hope a lot of people bring their kids. At least half of the show is aimed at children,” Bohren said.

The 52-voice chorus, which has steadily grown each year, will be augmented by eight dancers from Miss Stephany’s Dance studio in Mexico, and about 16 other children.

This year’s show will bring back a reading of Clement Moore’s, “T’was the Night Before Christmas,” with an updated enactment of the famous poem. The Gary DeRoehn family will play the family in the poem, featuring a dad who grumps about Christmas as he tries to sleep on the couch, and newly updated “nightcaps.”

Also in the two-hour, four-act show is the traditional Nativity scene.

Bohren said at least 80 people, including stage designers and other volunteers, make the annual event possible.

“Everyone in the chorus works – some as seamstresses, some as woodworkers, some painting the scenery. You don’t have to be in the chorus to be in RAAPA,” he said.

He said among the hundreds who attend are regulars from out-of-state who come each year.

“It’s a good value. We have had people tell us that the show is as good or better than those in larger cities and towns,” he said.

Performers began work and rehearsals for the annual event in September. As soon as this year’s event is completed, plans begin for the 2007 show.