CUMBERLAND — The air may just now be getting cooler but at Allegany Magazine, it’s already the holiday season.

Allegany Magazine is now accepting advertising reservations as it gears up to publish its annual holiday treasury special edition.

“Last year, we put out our very first holiday treasury edition and it was one of the most widely read and circulated editions we’ve ever done,” said Allegany Magazine Managing Editor Shane Riggs. “I had people tell me they were going to make the edition part of their holiday season every year.”

Like last year, this year’s special holiday edition will feature a variety of true stories, recipes and photographs surrounding the holiday season submitted by Allegany Magazine readers. The publication’s regular columns and features are suspended for this one issue so that from cover to cover the focus is the holiday season in the mountains of Maryland.

“This year’s edition features some of the most beautiful photos of nature in this area and some of the best heart-warming and even heart-wrenching stories we have read. The stories are very ‘Chicken Soup for the Local Holiday Soul’ and they have all come from our readers,” said Riggs. “This year’s issue is going to be one readers will make a part of their family traditions and read aloud to each other by Christmas lights or in front of the fireplace.”

In fact, this year, as part of a holiday presentation by the theater company Front and Centre Stage, some of the stories in last year’s Allegany Magazine holiday issue and one or two from this year’s edition will be presented as radio dramas.

“Front and Centre asked the magazine for permission to use a few of the narratives in a radio show this year,” said Riggs. “They are going to be blending our stories in with classics. I think it was a wonderful way to showcase what we hope will become a holiday favorite.”

During the taping of the program, Allegany Magazine will be available in the lobby of the theater where the show will be staged in front of a studio audience.

Riggs himself is no stranger to holiday publications. In 2000 and 2001, he co-authored the holiday books “Grandma’s Christmas Cookies,” a digest sized treasury which sold for $10.

“That holiday book I co-authored sold out in places. The magazine sells for $3.95 so page for page this is a better value than what I had produced nine years ago,” he said. “And the cover this year is going to make the magazine look like a collectible coffee table book that can be displayed proudly with any decorations. But it’s going to read like a novel full of true short stories. It’s going to be the best holiday card money can buy.”

In addition, advertisers coming out of a recession period hoping to capture an audience already in the holiday spirit will find their niche target with the magazine as well.

“Not only will be the special edition be on news stands longer, it will be in homes all through the holiday season,” said Riggs. “People tell me they don’t throw their magazines away and keep them fanned out or stacked. For the advertiser that means their ad never gets dated. An ad in the holiday edition will surely be around for holidays to come. For anyone in the retail, service or tourism industry, this is the issue to be in of all issues throughout the year.”

Riggs said the ads featured in the special edition also mark the time period. As writers reflect on holidays past, the sponsors in the magazine are a record of the present.

“An advertisement in this issue is not only promotion for a business or a service but it also becomes a sort of time capsule item a few years from now. In 10 years, people will still be reading this issue of Allegany Magazine during the holidays and saying, wow, look how cheap a mattress was back then.”

Potential advertisers are asked to contact Allegany Magazine’s account executive Shannon Benson for rates and details. A special Home and Design edition of the magazine published in September sold out of advertising space. The holiday issue could very likely and quickly yield the same response, said Riggs.

Allegany Magazine is a sister publication to the Cumberland Times-News. It is published nine times a year — including six regular bimonthly editions and three special editions published in May, September and November.