RUMFORD — It’s Christmastime in a year when the Rumford Association for the Advancement of the Performing Arts is marking its 44th anniversary.

So the organization, best known for its annual Musical Christmas Card event, has opted to put on a combination Christmas/anniversary show.

There will be Christmas carols, of course, and a variety of music reflecting the 44 years RAAPA has entertained audiences in the River Valley area.

Over the years, the group has given indoor and outdoor performances honoring U.S. servicemen and servicewomen during Memorial and Veterans Day celebrations. It has also presented 17 dinner/theater productions at local venues and brought some Broadway musicals to the local stage.

The show on Sunday, Dec. 2, at Mountain Valley High School will feature patriotic and Broadway music, and many Christmas favorites, including “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town,” “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” and “Sleigh Ride.”

The chorus, directed by Judith Kuhn with Gail Dorr as accompanist, will also sing “Christmas in a Small Town,” which has been performed yearly since 1978. Former RAAPA members from near and far will be invited on-stage to join in singing that number.

In keeping with tradition, the live Nativity scene, with  townspeople playing various roles, will close the program . Songs will include “Sing We Now of Christmas,” “Do You Hear What I Hear” and “O Come All Ye Faithful.”

Angela Oliver will present the moving poem “One Solitary Life” and Elaine Michaud will sing “Mary, Did You Know.” Other soloists are Jan Bernard, Mary Pulsifer and Jim Robertson.

New this year will be a humorous play, “A Little Something for Christmas,” starring veteran RAAPA actors Al Hanington, Gail Parent and Robertson. Another veteran actor, Nancy Demings, will read the children’s story with her own illustrations in a giant book.

The patriotic music section will include “God Bless America,” “Let There Be Peace on Earth” and “Song for the Unsung Hero.” Soloists will be Connie Venskus, Lacey Todd, Jeannine Murray, Gloria Buotte, Sylvia Goodman, Izzie Radford-Nash and Michaud.

Songs from RAAPA’s many dinner/theater performances will include“Memory” and “There Is Nothin’ Like a Dame,” with soloists Wayne Landry and Steve Borstelmann.

RAAPA Dance Troupe members, dressed in 1960s-style poodle skirts, will perform the sock-hop favorite “Do Wah Diddy Diddy.”

The show will be at 2 p.m. in Muskie Auditorium. General admission tickets are  $12/$5 for children under 12. Tickets are available from current RAAPA singers and dancers, as well as at Port to Port, Larsen’s Electric in Mexico and Log Cabin Craftworks in Dixfield. They will also be sold at the door.

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