As with so many things in life as the years tick-tick-tick by, it takes rather more priming of the pump than it used to to achieve the right holiday atmosphere.

Best concert ever: Bob (“Schoolhouse Rock”) Dorough on keys and Richard Sudhalter on cornet at a North Fork vineyard, spring 2002.

There is little question that soccer here, the games that have been played by adults since the early 1970s and since 2009 by our high schoolers, has been East Hampton’s pre-eminent sport.

Just imagine how much more peaceful the world would be if difficult and/or coldhearted people were walloped with a million daily currents of kindness and love.

It’s the pre-holiday raft of reader comment . . .

Among the highlights from The Star of yore: At a 1922 meeting, the Bridgehampton Spud Lifters Pedro Club claps back at the “East Hampton cracker barrel team,” vowing to reclaim the card game’s championship cup.

The latest reported real estate transactions across the South Fork.

The East Hampton Historical Farm Museum will celebrate Christmas, Bonacker-style, on Wednesday afternoon.

In the second volume of Neal Gabler’s monumental biography, Ted Kennedy’s progressive priorities run up against a resurgent American right.

The Bridgehampton School will host a blood drive from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Wednesday in the auditorium.

The writer Susan Scarf Merrell talks about her "secret" desire to write fiction, and her breakthrough novel, "Shirley: A Novel," a thriller that drew upon the life of Shirley Jackson, a writer known for her works of mystery and horror.

Barbara Kruger's immersive, dizzying installation at the Museum of Modern Art is an explosion of black-and-white text about truth, power, belief, doubt, and desire.

Grenning Gallery is selling prints to benefit a teaching facility for underserved communities, printmaking workshops are coming to The Church in Sag Harbor, and a new group show is at Sara Nightingale.

Although the new Sant Ambroeus in East Hampton has opened only recently, it has hit the ground running with a winning formula of food, service, and atmosphere that it employs in several restaurants in the United States and Milan.

Exotic ingredients abound on the New Year's Eve menus at the 1770 House, Nick and Toni's, Rowdy Hall, and Almond.

A range of holiday offerings from Tutto il Giorno, K Pasa, Carissa's Bakery, Luigi's Italian Specialties, and, farther afield, Insatiable Eats in Riverhead and Canoe Place Inn in Hampton Bays, plus a Springs Brewery pop-up in Sagaponack.

A house at 668 Bridgehampton-Sag Harbor Turnpike was already engulfed in flames by the time firefighters reached the scene on Saturday night.

The Star — legendary for its open forum for extensive reader comment. And here’s this week’s . . .

Repairs and upgrades are underway at the Y.M.C.A. East Hampton RECenter, its executive director, Molly Tuzil, announced this week.

Sunday is the first night of Hanukkah and the community is invited to a menorah lighting on the Hook Mill Green at 3:30 p.m. The second candle will be kindled on Monday at 5 p.m. There will be Hanukkah songs and treats for children both nights, and more fun planned throughout the week.