North Tahoe businesses, restaurants and residents will kick off the holiday season with Hospitality Holidays, a first-time North Tahoe event that will pair food tastings and live music with local vendors and a silent auction.

The free event is Dec. 4 at Kings Beach’s North Tahoe Events Center from 5-10pm. It is being put on by the North Lake Tahoe Chamber/Convention Visitors Bureau/Resort Association.

DJ One Truest and Sneaky Creatures will play live music, and Tahoe Flow Arts Studio will perform at the event. The event will feature food tastings from a variety of local restaurants and beer from event sponsor Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. at the no-host bar.

Other event activities include a photo booth where attendees can take photos with Santa, a raffle and silent auction.

For more information, call Ginger Karl at (530) 581.8764.

The third annual Meyers Tree Lighting is Dec. 6 from 5-7pm.

The Meyers Community Tree is next to Divided Sky.

There will be cookies, hot chocolate, popcorn, Lake Valley’s holiday fire truck, and Santa dropping in from the sky.

• The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum will honor Elvis Presley with a special exhibit featuring specific highlights of his career, including the rehearsal schedule from his 1971 Stateline performances.

• Sierra Surgery Hospital, in partnership with Carson Tahoe Health, has been named Top Performer on Key Quality Measures by the Joint Commission, the leading health care accrediting organization in the U.S.

• Here are the roadwork schedules from Caltrans for the coming week for El Dorado-Tahoe and Sierra.

• Iris Lazz, professional snowboarder from Lake Tahoe, has a blog with several recipes she is sharing.

• Forbes magazine lists Squaw Valley as the fifth best ski resort and Mammoth No. 7.

USDA Rural Development Nevada is providing a $25,200 grant to develop a website that will promote buying local products and services.

Buy Local Rural Northern Nevada includes Douglas, Churchill, Humboldt, Lyon, Mineral, Pershing and Storey counties. Rural Washoe County is also part of project.

The goal of the website is local businesses will be able promote themselves for free and the consumer will then know where to buy local products. It will be open to any type of business.

For more info, contact Dave Asher at (775) 224.2242.

Swiss Village Motel no longer exists. Photos/Bill Kingman

What the area looks like in 2013.

The long-standing Tahoe Bottle Shop remains today, while the Swiss Village Motel, the Fern Road intersection, and Joe Montoya’s Stateline Shell (distant grey building) seen in the 2002 photo have been replaced with today’s landscaping.

In the 1960s, prior to the “LIQUOR” sign, two large poles supported a huge electric Harrah’s marquee straddling over the bottle shop building.

The strategic positioning of that brightly-lighted marquee made it head-on visible to motorists on Highway 50 approaching from as far away as Ski Run Boulevard, listing Harrah’s entertainment attractions in large plastic letters.

A very strong windstorm one afternoon (I think mid-1965) felled the marquee, shattering it on the ground next to the building. It was never replaced, as that was about the time when billboards and off-premise signage became prohibited in the new city of South Lake Tahoe.

That windstorm also destroyed much of the drive-in theater movie screen on Glenwood Way in Bijou.

— Bill Kingman

More than 600 students from South Lake Tahoe schools recently received a new jacket for the winter.

Each year the Kiwanis, with the generosity of grants from the El Dorado Community Foundation, Antique and Classic Boat Society/Classic Wooden Boat Show, and the American Century Championship, is able to purchase these jackets. Eventually the service club would like to buy boots and snow pants for the youth.

Go online to find out more about the project.

Saint Joseph Community Land Trust is hosting a Give Thanks Spaghetti Dinner on Nov. 21 from 6-8pm.

It’s an opportunity for the group to give thanks to members and supporters.

Cost is $5.

The dinner will be at Grace Hall at Saint Theresa Church, 1041 Lyons Ave., South Lake Tahoe.

BloodSource will have a blood drive Dec. 2 from noon-6pm in South Lake Tahoe.

Participants will receive a parking validation for the Lake Tahoe Resort Hotel parking lot.

The blood drive is sponsored by the Barton Memorial Hospital Auxiliary.

For more information, call Dan Kerr at (775) 781.5343.

Have you ever wondered what Tahoe’s animals do for the winter? Will Richardson of the Tahoe Institute for Natural Science will present an overview of the strategies used by Tahoe wildlife for enduring long Sierra Nevada winters, and highlight many fascinating examples of how they are employed.

The talk is Dec. 5 at 5:30pm at the Tahoe Center for Environmental Sciences, 291 Country Club Drive, Incline Village.

Cost is $5.

Placer County Sheriff’s Department has had a series of promotions.

Mark Reed is now a captain. Reed was most recently assigned to lead the Investigations Division. He will be taking over as the commander of the Support Services Division.

Jeff Swearingen was promoted to the rank of lieutenant. Swearingen was most recently assigned to lead the Crimes Against Persons Unit in the Investigations Division. He will be reassigned to the Corrections Division.

Ben Machado was promoted to sergeant. Machado was most recently assigned to the Special Investigations Unit as an investigator.

Stacy Renegar was promoted to sergeant. Renegar was most recently assigned to the Crimes Against Persons Unit as an investigator.

Lt. John Poretti took over command of the Investigations Division from Reed. He is also public information officer.