Old Lyme will be a destination for an array of books, arts and crafts, holiday decorations, and handmade bowls, among other items, at different sales held over the first weekend of December.

A group of community organizations are hosting an annual holiday sale to benefit charitable missions.

“All of the funds that come in are for the greater good,” said Stephanie Kenny, president of Tribal Crafts, Inc., one of the non-profit organizations participating in the event.

The sale will also offer the opportunity to purchase homemade or reused items, she added.

The event is part of the Lyme-Old Lyme Chamber of Commerce’s annual “Light Up Old Lyme,” which features about six weeks of holiday activities.

Former Chamber president Cathy Frank said “Light Up Old Lyme” started in 2011 as a way for the chamber to let people know about all the holiday activities and events that take place in the Lyme-Old Lyme community. The chamber sponsors a community tree lighting — to be held at 4 p.m. Friday at Town Hall — while non-profits, galleries and shops “have their own long-standing traditions that make the holiday season full of fun.”

The volunteer-run organizations, which have been holding sales for many years, plan on having signs to direct customers to the other non-profit holiday sales in the community, the organizers said.

The annual Friends of the Old Lyme Phoebe Griffen Noyes Holiday Book Sale – with a preview event on Friday evening and the general sale on Saturday – attracts about 200 people and features thousands of books, along with DVDs and CDs, said Ann de Selding, who co-manages with Claudia Condon, the BookCellar in the basement of the library.

The BookCellar sale will feature more than 5,000 books at half price or less, according to a news release. The BookCellar’s rare and collectible books will also be sold.

Saturday’s Elephants in Winter Sale, run by the Ladies Benevolent Society at the First Congregational Church at Old Lyme, will feature holiday decorations, wreaths, and Christmas trees, as well as quilts, hats, gloves, and baby clothes made by the church’s sewing group. There will also be baked goods and peanut brittle.

The sale is a winter version of the White Elephant Sale, a long-running and popular summer sale whose proceeds mainly benefit charity.

The Woman’s Exchange of Old Lyme will hold a tax-free day on Saturday. The volunteer-run gift shop sells goods that include antiques, jewelry, scarves, hats, baby clothes, hand tatted dresses, children’s sweaters and hats, coloring books, handmade bowls, paintings and pocketbooks.

Joan Culbertson, publicity chair for the Woman’s Exchange, said all proceeds go back into the community, benefitting those from Shoreline Soup Kitchens and Pantries and the New London Homeless Hospitality Center to a man who makes toys for children in the hospital.

A partnership co-operative with Lakota, Haitian, and Palestinian arts, crafts and goods, based at the First Congregational Church, will host a sale at a donated storefront at the Old Lyme Marketplace on Halls Road Friday through Sunday, and Saturday and Sunday of the following weekend. Tribal Crafts, the Crosby Fund for Haitian Education, and the Tree of Life Education Fund are involved in the sale.

The First Congregational Church has a 32-year-old partnership with the Green Grass community on the Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota, said Kenny, the president of the Tribal Crafts board.

Under the partnership, art from the Green Grass community is sold in Old Lyme throughout the year. The money raised is brought back to the reservation the next year to buy more art, said Kenny.

“Our goal every year is to spend every dollar that we’ve raised throughout the year so it literally all goes back into the community,” Kenny said.

Paul Sand, a Lakota artist and Native American activist who lives in Eagle Butte, South Dakota, on the Cheyenne River Reservation, will come to Old Lyme for the sale.

“He carves beautiful sculptures from cottonwood root, a sacred tree to the Lakota people,” Kenny said by email. “Each piece tells a story of traditional Native culture and spirituality and are handmade using traditional techniques and materials. His work and his stories are truly inspirational and have been featured in many shops across the country.”

Becky Crosby of the Crosby Fund for Haitian Education, a 12-year old organization that provides scholarship funding from kindergarten through university-level, said the organization started bringing back Haitian artwork on commission as a way to support artists.

“It’s nice because when you buy a piece of Haitian art, you’re really enabling a family to eat,” she said. “Plus, it’s a beautiful piece of art.”

The sale will further feature arts and crafts from Beit Sahour, outside of Bethlehem, and organic olive oil.

Ann de Selding of the BookCellar said Old Lyme is a unique community with a good school system and a lot of volunteer spirit.

“We’re a very unique community, and there are many layers and there is just a lot, a lot going on,” she said. “We’re small, but mighty in terms of our community representation.”

k.drelich@theday.com