In just 42 days, many of us will be bidding on a lineup of cleverly-designed holiday gift baskets, with proceeds from the silent auction going to the Southern Rensselaer County Rotary Club treasury.

• The event: SRC’s  annual Holiday Party & Gift Basket Silent Auction on Thursday, December 19.

• The venue: The Forth residence in East Greenbush.

• The reason: ‘Tis the season!

Why? Well, the meal is always hauté, the libations a hit, the company a hoot — and the socializing and fellowship are a heck of a way to lead us into the final week before Christmas and New Year’s Eve.

We’re giving you this advance notice so you can begin working on themed gift baskets to put on the silent auction tables.

For the newer members, please be advised we do not take the word “basket” literally. Gift baskets always are a nice thing for the traditionalists among us, but we invite you to let your imaginations run wild. Anything that holds stuff is good — buckets, colanders, jars, boxes, bags, vases, etc . And, it’s the cleverness of the theme that attracts the most bids.

From time to time over the next few weeks we’ll be showing you some “basket” suggestions. Two of them are shown above. Meanwhile, start shopping for basket items and, above all, save the date for this family-friendly social event.