The light French feature film Blame It on Fidel, a child’s view of how experience shapes our political consciousness, screens on Saturday, Dec. 1, at 7:30 p.m. at the Katharine Cornell Theatre in Vineyard Haven.

The film centers on a whip-smart, feisty Parisian girl, Anna, who is forced to make sense of cataclysmic changes in her life after her parents decide to devote themselves full-time to radical activism.

Taize Worship Service

The United Methodist Cooperative Ministry will hold a candlelit Taize Worship beginning Sunday, Dec. 2 at 6 p.m. at the Chilmark Community Church. It will continue for four consecutive Sundays, through Dec. 23.

The Taize community began in the south of France in the 1940s to witness reconciliation and peace among individuals, nations and religious traditions. It incorporates elements of Protestantism, Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy.

LETTER ON THE WIND: A Chanukah Tale. By Sarah Marwil Lamstein. Illustrated by Neil Waldman. Boyds Mills Press, Honesdale, Pa. 2007. 32 pages. $16.95 hardcover.

The Island Community Chorus will open the holiday season with a festive concert program, presented twice this weekend at the Old Whaling Church in Edgartown.

At 7:30 p.m. tomorrow, and again at 3 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 2, the chorus will sing under the baton of its artistic director Peter Boak, with accompanist Garrett Brown at the piano.

For this holiday concert, the chorus is bringing back a popular favorite it hasn’t performed for several years, singing selections from G.F. Handel’s Messiah.

Works from Viet Nam

Works from Viet Nam, Chantal Legare’s mixed media exhibition on paper and wood, opens tomorrow, Dec. 1. at the West Tisbury library and will continue through Dec. 31.

Appraisal Day

Not sure if it’s trash or treasure? Bring it to the Martha’s Vineyard Museum’s appraisal day tomorrow, Dec. 1, at the Museum in the Pease House, 59 School street in Edgartown.

The holidays would not be complete without a show at The Vineyard Playhouse. Earl Hamner Jr.’s The Homecoming, adapted by Christopher Sergel and directed by M.J. Bruder Munafo, is back this year as part of the rotating repertory for The Playhouse’s annual family holiday show.

The Homecoming will run from Friday, Dec. 7 through Saturday, Dec. 22 on Fridays and Saturdays at 7 p.m. and on Sundays at 3 p.m. All shows will be performed at The Vineyard Playhouse at 24 Church street in downtown Vineyard Haven.

Hundreds turned out on Friday for the hayrides, children’s crafts, good food and music of the annual Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary Fall Festival. The sunny noontime party was crafted years ago as a big follow-up to Thanksgiving, a homecoming, a Vineyard attempt to bring fellowship to the day after the big family meal.

“And now, here they are: the beetles!” (Insert soundtrack of hysterical screams.)

Don’t faint, and don’t expect to see Paul, Ringo, George, and John — the beetles that I am talking about are the ones you would have had a much better chance of seeing in the past few weeks.

It is fun to catch up on what has been seen on Island while we were away. I think this is the first time in years a rare bird didn’t show up while we were away. Maybe the jinx is broken.