By ANN BOWDEN and LISA CRABTREE

Looking for unique holiday gifts? Want to avoid the malls this year? The 20th annual Winter Festival and Crafts Fair could be the answer you're looking for.

Hosted by the Phinney Neighborhood Association, the Winter Festival features over 120 crafts booths crammed with items ranging from kid's puzzles and whistles to fleece outerwear to garden sculpture to holiday wreaths and lots more. Held at the Phinney Neighborhood Center, 6532 Phinney Ave. N., and set for Saturday, Dec. 2, and Sunday, Dec. 3, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day, this popular event is expected to attract over 4,000 people from throughout the city.

Each year, in addition to crafts, the Winter Festival fills the Phinney Neighborhood Center's two buildings with a variety of live entertainment all weekend long. Entertainment ranges from Sousa to Marimba to classical. Dancers from the fjords of Finland, cloggers from the misty mountains of Appalachia and Middle Eastern belly dancers will all find their way to one of two stages during the weekend.

Hungry? A variety of lunch items is available or eat dessert first and fill up on baked goods at the huge bake sale of homemade items provided by PNA members.

Photos with Frosty the Snowperson and a quilt raffle are also highlights of this community event. In addition, many shoppers take the opportunity to choose a name from the Giving Tree and provide a gift for a needy person in the community.

The price of admission ($1 for PNA members, $3 for the general public, plus a can of food for local food banks) supports a variety of PNA programs like the soup kitchen, before and after school child care, a preschool co-op, community projects for neighbors in need, the Ballard Family Center and a number of community-building outreach events.

Sponsors include PCC, Red Mill Burgers, Jet City Maven, Starbucks Coffee-Phinney Ridge, Fred Meyer and Wells Fargo Bank.

For additional information, call 206-783-2244.