The Best of Tangipahoa Parish Blog

Christmas Events in Hammond

Do you still have Christmas shopping to do? Are you looking for a way to celebrate the Christmas season? Here is a list of some of the Christmas events happening in Hammond in December:

Fine and Functional Crafts 4 - Hammond Regional Arts Center (217 E Thomas St), December 10 1pm to 5pm, December 11 11am to 3pm, December 17 1pm to 5pm, December 18 11am to 3pm. Get your holiday shopping completed here!

Hammond Ballet Company Presents "The Nutcracker" - Columbia Theatre For Performing Arts (220 E Thomas St), December 10 and 11 7pm. Watch this classic Christmas ballet performed live before you. Tickets are $25 for the Orchestra, $30 for Loge seating and $20 in the Balcony. Visit the Hammond Ballet Company's website to purchase tickets.

Louisiana Renaissance Festival - 46468 River Rd, December 11 and 12, 9:30am to 5pm. While not a Christmas event, this is the last weekend for the annual LA Ren-Fest. There will be fine live entertainment, food and demonstrations going on throughout the day. Watch the fireworks show after sundown on Saturday and Sunday. Visit the LA Ren-Fest website to purchase your tickets today.

There are several Christmas events happening in Hammond throughout December. Those listed above are just a few that you may not want to miss. Remember, if you're looking to celebrate your Christmas in a new Hammond home, please contact us and we'll be happy to help. Happy holidays, everyone!

Yvonne Martin and The Martin Team, Let My Family Bring Your Family Home to Hammond Real Estate

Have Breakfast With Santa Bear in Hammond

Have breakfast with Santa Bear in Hammond on Saturday, December 4, 2010 at the Louisiana Children's Discovery Center. From 8am to 10am, parents are encouraged to bring their children to enjoy milk and donuts, look through the museum's exhibits and take pictures with both Santa Bear as well as Santa Claus. Make sure to bring your own cameras for the pictures, though, parents.

This event has been set up to benefit the Santa Bear Christmas Crusade, who gives toys to kids (ages 2-8) of underprivileged Hammond families for the holidays. The price of admission to the breakfast with Santa Bear is just one new, unwrapped toy from each child who attends. You're always welcome to bring more if you would like. The toughest age group to get enough toys for tends to be the 7 to 8-year-olds. So, if you can bring more than one gift, please make at least one of them for these guys.

In addition to toys, the Santa Bear Christmas Crusade is also in need of monetary donations. Their goal this year is $15,000. But, with the slow economy, they've only been able to raise about half of their goal so far. They're afraid that if they are unable to meet their goal, they may have to start turning away Hammond families in need from the applications that have already been turned in. They would love to be able to help all the applicants instead of turning to a lottery system.

If you wish you make a toy donation but are unable to attend the breakfast, please bring them to:

The Daily Star
725 S Morrison Blvd
Hammond, LA

If you can make a monetary donation, you can bring a check to The Daily Star's offices or send a check to:

Christmas Crusade for Children
PO Box 1149
Hammond, LA 70404

Come to the Louisiana Children's Discovery Center on Saturday, December 4, 2010 from 8-10am and have breakfast with Santa Bear in Hammond. Bring a new, unwrapped toy to help benefit Hammond families in need this holiday season. Enjoy a fun event and make a difference in local lives.

Yvonne Martin and The Martin Team, Let My Family Bring Your Family Home to Hammond Real Estate

FHA Program Offers Help to Buy a Home to Rehab

With so many different homes available on the Hammond real estate market, now is the time to dip your toes into the homeowner pool with a "fixer upper". If you don't mind buying a "diamond in the rough", you may want to consider the FHA program that offers help to buy a home to rehab. The FHA (203) Rehab Program was created to help clean up the rundown homes in a neighborhood while helping homebuyers afford to do so.

Through a conventional home loan, the property must be worth at least what the loan amount is in order to be approved. However, when it comes to a home that needs a bit of work, oftentimes, the property isn't worth that much. This causes the homebuyer to have to secure financing through other means in order to pay for repairs or other construction work needed to fix up their home. These loans tend to be for shorter terms and higher interest rates, decreasing the chances that a buyer can purchase the fixer-upper to begin with.

Through the FHA (203) program, a Hammond homebuyer is able to purchase the home as well as secure financing for repairs and construction in one mortgage loan, with one payment and the lowest interest rates they qualify for. This works out as a win-win for the local housing market, since the properties that were previously considered eyesores can now be bought up by homeowners willing to put the work into them to make them better and more homebuyers are now able to afford their own Hammond home.

To qualify for the FHA (203) Rehab Program, the home in question:

Can't be larger than a four-family multiplex (single-family, duplex, triplex or quad will qualify)
Must have been completely finished from initial construction within the last year (no newly constructed homes allowed)
At least have part of the original foundation left in place on the property (if the rest of the home has been completely demolished)

If you want to purchase a Tangipahoa home, are willing to put a bit of elbow grease into fixing it up and want to have the cost of the mortgage and repairs/remodeling in one payment, this FHA program offers help for buyers who want to purchase a home to rehab. Contact me today so I can help you find the perfect Hammond home for you!

Yvonne Martin, The Martin Team, Let My Family Bring Your Family Home to Hammond Real Estate

Covington Boo Fest Helps Northshore Families Helping Families

Want to celebrate Halloween and help make a difference? Go to the Lakeview Regional Rehabilitation and Sports Medicine facility (19055 Kane Lane) on Saturday, October 30th, 2010 from 11:00 am to 3:00 pm for "Boo Fest". The Covington"Boo Fest" helps Northshore Families Helping Families charity. The "Boo Fest" is the first fundraiser of its type to help benefit the local Hammond area charity, who helps children with disabilities as well as their families.

At the event, kids can enjoy trick-or-treating, so make sure to dress up! There will be gruesome games, freakish fun and eerie eats for everyone to enjoy. A Jambalaya Cook-Off is scheduled as well. Donations will be accepted at the event, so feel free to give as well as receive.

Sponsors of the Covington "Boo Fest" include:

North Oaks Health System
Fidelity Homestead
Hancock Bank
Tangipahoa Tourism
Burns Estate Planning, LLC
Southeastern Lousiana University
First Guaranty Bank
Louisiana Federal Credit Union
Specialty LTCH Hospital in Hammond
Walmart
Emery & James, LTD Gohres Insurance
Charter Business
Regions Bank

If you want something different to do for Halloween as well as a great, fun way to help a wonderful charity, consider Covington's "Boo Fest", which helps Northshore Families Helping Families. Food, fun, candy and goodwill...that's part of what makes Tangipahoa Parish and St Tammany Parish such great places to live!

Yvonne Martin, The Martin Team, Let My Family Bring Your Family Home to Hammond

Ponchatoula Estate Sale to Raise Money for Local Homeless Shelter

This Saturday, October 9, 2010, there will be a Ponchatoula estate sale to raise money for local homeless shelter Serenity House. Money raised from the estate sale will go towards paying for much needed items at Serenity House, such as paved handicapped parking and a commercial grade hood for their stove that was recently declared out of compliance with fire code by the Ponchatoula Fire Department's inspectors. Serenity House won't be able to cook their two meals a day for the home's 27 residents until the hood is replaced.

The estate sale, coordinated by the Ponchatoula First Baptist Church Busy Bees Club, will be held at the Ponchatoula Community Center (300 N Sixth St) from 8am to 4pm this Saturday. In addition to the bikes, toys, furniture, baby clothes, jewelry and other items available for sale, there will be kids games, a plant sale and a cake sale during the event.

Just like many non-profit organizations, Ponchatoula's Serenity House is struggling financially. Since this is the only homeless shelter in Tangipahoa Parish, it is the only home for its residents. Without Serenity House, they would have nowhere to go. Come to the Ponchatoula estate sale this Saturday to help raise money for the local homeless shelter. You'll have fun, be able to purchase great items and help a fantastic organization who helps the community.

Yvonne Martin, your Ponchatoula real estate specialist

Indie Film Festival in Hammond

Come see the JamFest Indie Film Festival in Hammond on September 24-25, 2010. For the third year in a row, the indie film fest will be screening 50 films from around the world, including several made in our own United States. A special screening of children's films will be held Saturday morning as well. The Northshore Regional Endowment of the Arts is sponsoring this festival in downtown Hammond.

All films will be screened within a couple of blocks of each other in downtown Hammond, at either the Hammond Regional Arts Center (217 E Thomas St) or Tope la Catering (113 E Thomas Street). That way, you can easily commute between each venue to catch the movies you want to see.

The screenings will be broken down into sections, such as comedies, dramas, documentaries, musical documentaries and videos and Platinum ("Best of the Fest"). Included in the Platinum screenings will be a New Orleans' comedy production of "I Ran Against Us". The screening schedule will be as follows:

Friday, September 24
Comedies - 5:30-9:30pm at Hammond Regional Arts Center
Drama - 5:30-9:30pm at Tope la Catering

Saturday, September 25
Children's Movies - 9:00-11:45am at Hammond Regional Arts Center
Filmmakers Seminar with Emmy Winner Robert A Nowotny - 10:00-11:30am at Tope la Catering
Filmmakers Roundtable - 11:30am-1:00pm at Tope la Catering
Experimental Films - 1:00-4:30pm at Hammond Regional Arts Center
Best of the Fest - 1:00-4:40pm at Tope la Catering
Music Videos and Music Documentaries - 6:00-9:00pm at Hammond Regional Arts Center
Documentaries - 6:00-9:15pm at Tope la Catering

Movies that will be screened during the film festival come as far away as Singapore, Australia, France, Spain and Iran as well as those filmed in our own backyard of Slidell and Hammond.

Tickets are only $10 for adults, $5 for kids (for the children's screening only) and SLU students get in free when they show their ID. The $10 tickets will get you in to both days of screenings. Tickets can be purchased prior to the festival at Dr. Ted's Musician Center (1200 W Thomas St), PJ Coffee & Tea Co (224 W Thomas St), Worlds End Cafe (1000 N Oaks St), the Hammond Regional Arts Center or Tope la Catering.

If you love movies, you'll love the Indie Film Festival in Hammond on September 24th and 25th, 2010.

Yvonne Martin, your Hammond real estate expert