Christmas Season Starts in Historic Bethlehem: Your Weekend

It’s Thanksgiving weekend, which means, of course, the start of the traditional holiday season and few places in the world do the holiday season with more flair than the Christmas City’s Historic Downtown.

Things get under way at the annual lighting ceremony for the city’s Christmas tree, which will take place at 4:30 p.m. Friday at Payrow Plaza, between City Hall and the Bethlehem Area Public Library.

Before—or after, stop by Christmas City Village, a traditional German-style open-air holiday market of 35 wooden huts that will occupy the Sun Inn Courtyard and spaces near the Historic Hotel Bethlehem and the Central Moravian Church.

The Weihnachtsmarkt huts, which open for the season Friday, are filled with unique Christmas gift ideas. As you shop, enjoy bratwurst with sauerkraut and warm up with a hot beverage including the popular hot mulled wine from Germany called Gluhwein.

The Historic Hotel Bethlehem will host an open house from 5 to 8 p.m. Friday. Enjoy complimentary hot apple cider with Christmas pastries and cookies during which guests can take in the hotel’s classically festive decorations while on a self-guided tour. 

Then popular cover band Philadelphia Funk Authority will perform in the Hotel Bethlehem’s Mural Ballroom, a.k.a. Club Mural, from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. Admission to the concert is $5 or the donation of a new, unwrapped toy for the U.S. Marine Corps’ Toys for Tots program.

Friday is also the first day of the holiday tours offered by the Historic Bethlehem Museums & Sites. Those include the Christmas City Stroll, Scenic Horsedrawn Carriage Rides, the Bethlehem by Night Bus Tour and the holiday version of the Rise & Fall of Bethlehem Steel. For more information on tour times or to purchase tickets, contact the Historic Bethlehem Visitor Center at 505 Main St., call 1-800-360-TOUR or view this website: www.historicbethlehem.org.

Work off all that turkey and stuffing Saturday morning in the 11th Annual Historic Turkey Trot 5K and walk through the streets of the Central Historic District. The race benefits Historic Bethlehem. Register online or call 610-882-0450 ext. 10 for more information. Race pack and t-shirt pickup is 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Friday at the Luckenbach Mill (459 Old York Road) and after the race.

The seventh annual Bethlehem Live Advent Calendar debuts Sunday in front of the 1810 Goundie House at 505 Main St. From Sunday through Dec. 23—at 5:30 p.m. sharp—a merchant from the Downtown Bethlehem Association will present a special treat to the visitors who gather around that front door. In years past, those treats have included special performances, holiday sweets and other gifts. As many as 300 people have attended these unique door openings, so if you go, go early.

Here’s what else is going on in Bethlehem this weekend:

• If you want to go out Thursday night, but aren’t interesting in visiting a big box store, the ArtsQuest Center at SteelStacks will be open, with two showings each of the films Dallas Buyers Club and Philomena and a live performance by The Associated Mess, the Lehigh Valley’s premier improv comedy group.

• Christkindlmarkt will be closed Thanksgiving day, but it will reopen for its regular hours on Friday at 11 a.m.

• There will be football at Frank Banko Field at 1 p.m. Saturday, though unfortunately not for our boys from Liberty, Freedom or even District 11 AAA champion Bethlehem Catholic. Instead, Lehigh Valley Conference rivals—and the Quad-A District 11 champions—from Parkland High School will be trying to advance to the PIAA semifinals in a showdown with Philadelphia city champion St. Joseph’s Prep.

• Country music star Trace Adkins brings his Christmas Show Tour to the Sands Bethlehem Event Center at 8 p.m. Friday. His newest release—The King’s Gift, an album of traditional Celtic carols—was released just a month ago. Tickets are from $45 to $79.50.

• Grammy-award winning percussionist and Bethlehem native son, Pablo Batista, will perform with his new nine-piece ensemble, Pablo Batista & The Mambo Syndicate, at a concert at 7 p.m. Saturday to benefit his alma mater, the Holy Infancy School, at the Holy Infancy School Hall, Fourth & Webster streets. Tickets: $15 pre-sale and $18 at the door. To purchase tickets, call Holy Infancy Church 610-866-1121.

• Heavy metal superstars Megadeth come to the Sands Bethlehem Event Center stage at 8 p.m. Saturday. General admission tickets are $35.

• Finger picking blues guitar legend Roy Book Binder makes his annual Thanksgiving weekend pilgrimage to Godfrey Daniels at 8 p.m. Saturday. The disciple of the also legendary Rev. Gary Davis has been touring, recording and telling stories for nearly 50 years. Admission is $18.50.