“Tis the season,” Georgia Pappas said Sunday inside the Church of the Annunciation’s Mihailides Center in Cranston. “It’s that time of year when organizations hold their Christmas Bazaars.”

But Pappas’ group, The Greek Orthodox Ladies Philoptochos Society, hosts a holiday bazaar unlike any other church, civic group or non-profit in Rhode Island.

One reason, in particular, is that much of the profits will go toward supporting an orphanage, the poor, destitute, hungry and sick.

“We support many charities throughout the state,” Pappas said. “As our mission statement reads: We promote the charitable, benevolent and philanthropic purposes of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America; we’re basically a group that is a friend of the poor.”

But what about the Christmas Bazaar & Greek Food Fair?

“It’s a scaled-down version of our parish’s annual Cranston Greek Festival,” Pappas said of the Annunciation Church’s three-day event that in September drew upwards of 40,000 people. “Our Christmas Bazaar has many of the same Greek foods and pastries.”

However, when the Philoptochos Ladies Society holds its annual Christmas Bazaar and Greek Food Fest this Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 9-10, there will be much more than just food and sweet stuff.

This weekend’s Christmas Bazaar & Greek Food Fair will feature a silent auction, handcrafts, jewelry and Argora (Greek Marketplace) white elephant, Christmas Boutique, bookstore, vintage treasurers and penny social.

While the penny social booth has been perhaps the most popular section in recent years because people can win everything from gift certificates to restaurants and Providence Bruins games just by purchasing tickets and placing them in a canister, Pappas pointed out two other significant areas that are sure to be visited time and again this weekend.

“Members of our Society have been knitting and crocheting scarves, headbands, blankets, baby clothes, hats and sweaters just to sell at the handcrafts booth,” Pappas said. “And please remember, each one of these ladies is talented in those fields.”

Another booth that Pappas hopes will create sellouts this weekend is the Greek Pastry section.

“Here again, many of our members have been busy in recent weeks baking cookies, etc.,” Pappas said. “Take the night we made diples; we have over 30 ladies doing different jobs so we could offer diples during the Christmas Bazaar.”

This weekend’s event will mark the first time in history that the Ladies Philoptochos Society will sell diples at the Christmas Bazaar & Greek Food Fair.

“That’s because there are so many steps needed to make the diples,” Pappas said. “But everyone agreed we should try and do it; we sell out of diples every September.”

Pappas said Diples are like an Italian wandi, except the Greek Diples are fried strips of thin, flaky dough topped with chopped walnuts, cinnamon and Greek honey syrup.

“It’s hard enough just to make and roll the dough,” Pappas said. “But you should have seen the enthusiasm from our members the night we baked the Diples. It was a night that created so much excitement.”

This weekend’s event will run from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday and 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. Adding to the excitement of booths, food and pastry, people will be able to bid on individual items in the Silent Auction that will range from valued sports memorabilia to jewelry, antiques and paintings.

Pappas said the weekend’s menu will include Greek style roast lamb, charcoal broiled and marinated pork souvlaki on skewers, roast chicken dinner, pastitsio (layers of pasta and ground beef seasoned with béchamel sauce) and gyro sandwiches.

There’s plenty of parking in the Church of the Annunciation’s parking lot at 175 Oaklawn Avenue in Cranston and people can use credit cards during the Christmas Bazaar & Greek Food Fair. There’s also handicapped accessibility to Demetrakas Hall that will be decorated in a special Christmas holiday theme throughout the weekend.