The bows on some Christmas tournament packages will be untied before Christmas while some will have to wait until after old St. Nick arrives.

Here’s a rundown of the Bureau County area boys and girls tournaments:

Girls basketball

At Ottawa: The Ottawa Girls Holiday Tournament tips off Friday, Dec. 19 with the final day set for Tuesday, Dec. 23.

Princeton returns for its third year Ottawa. The Tigresses (8-0), who placed fourth a year ago, will have pool games vs. LaSalle-Peru (3-5) at 6 p.m. on Dec. 19 and Joliet Catholic Academy (4-5) at 4:30 p.m. on Dec. 20.

Other pools consist of Ottawa (6-3), Newark (0-7) and Plainfield Central in Pool A, IVC (8-1), Pontiac (5-4) and Seneca (3-6) in Pool B and Fieldcrest (5-6), Metamora (7-4) and Streator (1-11) in Pool D.

Ottawa defeated Morris for last year’s title.

Bracket play will held on Monday, Dec. 22 with the finals day set for Tuesday, Dec. 23.

At St. Bede: The Lady Bruins Christmas Classic will have a new look this season with seven teams in a shootout format, each playing four games over two days on Friday, Dec. 26 and Saturday, Dec. 27.

St. Bede (4-4-1) will have games on Dec. 26 vs. Orion (3-5) at 11:50 a.m. and IVC (8-1) at 5:35 p.m. and Dec. 27 vs. Brimfield (2-7) at 9 a.m. and Sandwich (3-8) at 5:35 p.m.

Putnam County (0-10) will be playing Brimfield at 10:25 a.m. and Orion at 4:10 p.m. on Dec. 26 and IVC at 10:25 a.m. and Sandwich at 2:45 p.m. on Dec. 27.

Serena (5-6) is the seventh team in the field.

St. Bede defeated Fieldcrest 44-36 for last year’s championship.

At Prophetstown: The Bureau Valley Storm and Hall Red Devils both return for this year’s Warkins Memorial Tournament at Prophetstown High School playing out of separate pools running Dec. 27-30.

The Red Devils (5-4) will play Wethersfield (6-2) at 11:30 a.m. on Dec. 27 with the Storm (4-2) to follow against Morrison (0-9) at 1 p.m.

The Bureau County cagers will play back to back again on Dec. 28 with the Storm facing host E-P (4-4) at 4 p.m. and the Red Devils vs. Rockridge (3-6) at 5:30 p.m.

Crossover games will be held on Dec. 29 with the finals played out on Dec. 30.

Monmouth-Roseville (3-4) defeated Wethersfield 54-37 for last year’s championship.

Boys basketball

At Seneca: This is the second year for the Shipyard Showdown at Seneca, which replaced the former Marseilles/Marquette Tournament.

Hall (6-1), which will play Mendota for their own Colmone Classic championship on Saturday, drew the No. 2 seed and a first-round meeting with neighbor DePue (0-5) at noon on Tuesday, Dec. 23. Their winner will face the winner between No. 7 Reed-Custer (3-4) nand Seneca (2-4) at 6 p.m. on Dec. 23.

Defending champion Lexington (5-1) drew the No. 1 seed with Hall, Indian Creek (4-2), Marquette (6-1) and Wilmington (4-1) rounding out the top 5 seeds.

The championship game is set for 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 27.

Lexington beat the host Irish 52-44 in last year’s championship game.

At Sherrard: Princeton returns for its second season at the Mike Hutchins Holiday Classic, now in its third year at Sherrard which will run Dec. 27-30.

The Tigers (1-6) drew the No. 6 seed and opening date against No. 3 Peoria Dame (2-4) on Dec. 27. Their game feeds into the winner and losers of the No. 2 Sherrard (5-1) vs. No. 7 Alleman (2-6) game. Game times are to be determined.

Byron (3-1) drew the No. 1 seed.

Sherrard defeated East Dubuque 51-39 to win last year’s title.

At LaMoille: The 4th annual LaMoille Holiday Classic will be held Dec. 29-31. Defending champ Galva (6-3), which placed ninth at Hall’s Colmone Classic, returns in a field including Amboy (4-3), Putnam County (2-9) and the Lions (1-8).

Game times are to be determined.

At Princeville: St. Bede will return for the 97th annual Princeville Holiday Tournament, one of the longest tournaments in the state. The Bruins drew the No. 4 seed, facing the host Princes (4-2), the No. 5 seed, at 8 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 26.

Brimfield (8-0) is the top seed with Elmwood (7-0) at No. 2 and Peoria Heights (5-1) at No. 3.

The tournament runs through Dec. 29.