Downtown Riverhead

Holiday celebrations continue in downtown Riverhead tomorrow afternoon with the Lion’s Club 70th Annual Christmas Parade, followed by a roaring bonfire on the Peconic Riverfront featuring caroling, hot cocoa, candy canes and a chance for the kids to visit with Santa Claus in his gingerbread house.

A crowd filled Riverhead's new town square Sunday evening to celebrate the holiday season and enjoy the inaugural lighting of the Colorado blue spruce Christmas tree bedecked with festive decorations and a thousand colorful lights, standing tall near the center of the square.

The downtown Riverhead tree-lighting event has been postponed to Sunday. The schedule of events remains the same.

Barbers named Balzano have been clipping hair and shaving faces in downtown Riverhead for 62 years. But come Jan. 28, brothers Tony and Andy will be giving their last haircuts at the barbershop opened by their father Jerry in 1970, when he moved the business from the Peconic Avenue shop he opened in 1960.

A new restaurant is readying to open up at the East Main Street site formerly occupied by PeraBell Food Bar.

The Colorado blue spruce will grow to be about 50 feet tall, said Jim Warner of Warner Nursery, which donated the tree to the town. “Every town needs a Christmas tree,” he said.

Residents and prospective marijuana entrepreneurs applauded the Riverhead Town Board’s proposed zoning code for marijuana businesses as retail sales are poised to get underway, with one speaker calling it the most “progressive” of its kind and most friendly to the emerging industry on Long Island.

People exploring downtown will come across 39 newly installed signs at historical landmarks that display a QR code leading to a synopsis of the location’s history read aloud, and sometimes accompanied by historical photographs.

Get ready for downtown Riverhead's Halloween Fest, taking place next Saturday (Oct. 22) with coffin races, trick-or-treating, and an after-dark parade.

Blue skies and sunshine prevailed yesterday and crowds returned to downtown Riverhead for the 46th Annual Riverhead Country Fair. Photo gallery.