December is so full of events, it's sometimes hard to get in those special  holiday memories you’d like to make with your children – so start in November, with the Appalachian Christmas celebration at BabyLand.

Santa will be visiting the Babyland General Hospital Saturday November 19. The facility is located in North Georgia’s Cleveland, where Cabbage Patch babies originated.  (See more about the history of Cabbage Patch babies in my blog here.) This will be the 33^rd  annual celebration of Appalachian Christmas, and the doctors and nurses that deliver the special little babies right out of the cabbage patch will have music, dancing, a bounce house, rock-climbing wall, bungee jumping, a giant slide and s’mores. The hospital has been decorated with more than 50 Christmas trees. At dusk they will begin the countdown to the tree lighting – and there will be snow. (Really!)

Admission to the celebration is free. You can have a pancake breakfast with Santa for $10 (reservations are required.) Cabbage Patch babies are always doing something new – and this year several Celebrity Kids are being auctioned on EBay to raise money for the Children’s Action Network (CAN) a national adoption awareness organizations dedicated to finding homes for children in the U.S. who are in foster care. The Celebrity Kids are one-of-a-kind Cabbage Patch babies – in the image of Steven Tyler, Al Roker, Katherine Heigl, Kristen Chenoweth and Raven-Symone. Go to CPKAuctionforCharity.com to bid on the babies – or to see them.

All proceeds from the Steven Tyler, Al Roker and Raven-Symone Celebrity kids will benefit CAN. Kristen Chenoweth and Katherine Heigl are donating 50 percent to CAN and 50 percent to Maddie’s Corner and the Jason Debus Heigl Foundation respectively.  Funds raised in the auction will bring programs and services to children in foster care.

If you don’t make it this Saturday, Santa will visit Babyland General Saturdays and Sundays through December 18 and then daily from December 19 through 23. He will be there for breakfast again on December 20. Check the Babyland website for times. (If you plan to stay overnight – check out the special Cabbage Patch deals at Unicoi Lodge, Smithgall Woods State Park and the Hampton Inn in Helen.

Photos courtesy BabyLand General. Used with permission.