That’s right: every week we are going to celebrate some small holiday! We want you to join us in celebrating every week – because really, everyone needs a little more happiness in their lives.

Join us in celebrating the holiday just yourself, and take some small quiet time to enjoy it. Or, take our book and program ideas, and celebrate in a larger way in your library. Take a small, goofy opportunity to have a little more fun today! (We celebrate you in doing this!)

Today is National Chocolate Covered Cherry Day. These can be pretty polarizing: some people love them and some really do not. I grew up with a mom who loved them, especially at the holiday season. I never mind a little more chocolate in my day, but don’t go out of my way for them. But, am I going to eat one today? You bet! (I’ll share the box with other library people, because I’m definitely not finishing an entire box.)

Here are a few book ideas, for you or for your library:

• Making Chocolate: From Bean to Bar to S’more: A Cookbook, by Dandelion Chocolate
• On the Corner of Chocolate Avenue: How Milton Hershey Brought Milk Chocolate to America, by Tziporah Cohen (author) and Steven Salerno (Illustrator)
• Sin & Chocolate (Demigods of San Francisco Book 1), by K.F. Breene
• Chocolate: Recipes and Techniques from the Ferrandi School of Culinary Arts, by FERRANDI Paris
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, by Roald Dahl
• Just Chocolate Labs 2023 Wall Calendar, by Willow Creek Press (okay, this one is cheating a little bit – but they are so cute!)

How could you celebrate this day in your library? A few ideas:

• Display of books on chocolate, candy, or cherries
• Cherry trees are not only sources of fruit, their blossoms are beautiful and fragrant. Break out the paper and colored pencils, and have patrons draw trees and flowers – and create the most beautiful sets of colors and images they can imagine.
• Set up a smelling event. Have a bunch of different smelling items, numbered. Let patrons take a sniff of each of them, and make notes about their guesses of the item. People with the most good guesses win!

The main thing today: just take a few minutes to enjoy yourself and to have a happy minute. We are here for you, and your year-long celebrations!