5 Things You Need To Know Today: Friday Dec. 23

Here are five pieces of information designed to start your long holiday weekend with a "Ho-Ho-Ho" and to help make you the smartest person starting their Christmas shopping, ummmm, now.

1. Your Three-day Holiday Weekend Forecast: Rain, mainly before 10am. Patchy fog before noon. High near 41. North wind around 7 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New rainfall amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch possible. Tonight: Partly cloudy, with a low around 20. North wind between 6 and 9 mph.
Saturday: Partly sunny, then gradually becoming sunny, with a high near 29. North wind between 6 and 8 mph.
Saturday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 18. North wind around 5 mph becoming calm.
Christmas Day: Partly sunny, with a high near 39. South wind between 3 and 10 mph, with gusts as high as 21 mph.
Sunday Night: A slight chance of snow showers. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 27. Chance of precipitation is 20%.
Monday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 40.

2. It's Happening Today: at 7:00 pm, 10 East St, Tewksbury.

3. Quote of the Day: "We have been very lucky in the past. We have decorations all over the school. It's disappointing that they would target an elementary school."

4. Reader Comment of the Day: "We needed another traffic stop at that corner of Shawsheen and Main like we needed a hole in the head." Reader Marc, commenting on

5. Don't Forget: You Still Have Time To Enter Your House and Vote In the First Round of the Patch "Deck The House Contest."