BETHLEHEM (CT) OFFERS A FESTIVE START TO THE HOLIDAY SEASON

They call this little town in the Litchfield Hills of Connecticut “Christmas Town” with good reason. Bethlehem’s Christmas Town Festival is scheduled for December 2 and 3, celebrating its 42nd birthday this year as one of New England’s favorite ways to kick off the season. Wherever you turn, special treats are waiting, from the town green to the post office to the Abbey of Regina Laudis and the 1754 Bellamy-Ferriday House. Some of the unique attractions continue when the festival is over. The opening ceremony and Tree Lighting on the Green will take place on Friday, December 2 @ 6 p.m. with Honorary Emcee WFSB TV3 News personality, Irene O'Connor. On Saturday only there is a Santa Made Me Do It 5K road race that begins at 10 a.m. For details click here.

Vendors and More On the Green

The quaint town green, centered with a giant tree, is home to over 70 vendors with unique gift items, wreaths, and delicious foods for sale. Strolling carolers and musicians help keep things lively, Santa will be waiting at the firehouse to pose for pictures with young friends, and everyone is invited to climb aboard for hayrides offered in front of First Church. Collectors can garner this year’s unique limited edition Christmas Town pewter ornament, sold only during the Festival. 

Bethlehem’s beautiful eighteenth-century Bellamy-Ferriday House & Garden will be festively decorated and open for tours and holiday cheer during festival hours. Guides will offer house tours and there will be hot cider and a scavenger hunt for children. The home is located at 9 Main Street North, information can be found at www.ctlandmarks.org

Hours for the Christmas Town Festival are Friday, December 2 from 5 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. and Saturday, December 3, from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information, see www.christmastownfestival.com or phone 203-266-7510, ext. 300.

Christmas Town Mailings at the Post Office

 

 

The Bethlehem post office is busy in December serving the many who come every year to mail holiday cards with their unique postmarks.  Visitors can select favorites among the “Christmas Cachet” designs, hand-stamp, and mail these unique greetings to friends and family. The idea of the special stamps dates to 1938, when a local Postmaster, the late Earl Johnson, designed a “cachet,” a special rubber stamp featuring a tree and lettering that said, “From the Little Town of Bethlehem, Christmas Greetings.” New cachets have been added almost every year since. Over 70 designs are now available and nearly 200,000 cards are mailed each year from this small post office.  Located at 34 East Street, the post office will have extended hours during the festival, Friday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Saturday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. 

Precious Crèches at the Abbey

One of Bethlehem’s not-to-be-missed jewels is open all month for visitors. The museum-quality eighteenth-century Neapolitan crèche on view in a vintage barn at the Abbey of Regina Laudis includes hundreds of beautiful hand-carved figures. Made of wood, terra cotta, and porcelain, the figures portray the Holy Family, angels, the Three Kings, merchants and peddlers, children, peasants, and farm animals.  This fabulous gift from artist and philanthropist Loretta Hines Howard is similar to the one Howard donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where it is prominently displayed every Christmas. 

A second Crèche, The Lauren Ford Crèche, created by a favorite Connecticut artist, is displayed in a farm shed near the Lower Abbey Chapel. This charming rustic Nativity scene displays figures of Jesus, Mary and Joseph dressed in typical New England garb.

The Monastic Art Shop on the property offers crafts, cheeses, jams, herbal teas, flavored vinegar, herbs, and honey, all created on-site by Abbey’s residents.

The Abbey of Regina Laudis, located at 249 Flanders Road, is open to visitors daily from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information, visit www.abbeyofreginalaudis.org

Indigenous Artists & More Holiday Market @ Institute for American Indian Studies November 26 & 27, December 3 & 4, 10 & 11

 

Once again this year, the Institute for American Indian Studies located at 38 Curtis Road in Washington is hosting a one-of-a-kind holiday shopping experience that celebrates Native American culture. What makes this Holiday Market unique is that it pays tribute to indigenous people across the United States and provides a spectacular opportunity to see Native American-inspired work that is handmade, artfully displayed, and sold. 

The Holiday Market located in one of the Institute’s impressive exhibition galleries takes place on Saturday, November 26, and Sunday, November 27, and Saturday, December 3, and Sunday, December 4. The final weekend for the holiday market is on Saturday, December 10, and Sunday, December 11. The market is free and open to the public from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day. 

A tour of the museum is an insightful experience that compliments this unique shopping experience. Entrance to the museum is a nominal fee ($12 for adults, $10 for seniors, and $8 for children; members of the museum are free), and includes the newly installed national traveling exhibit, “Nebizun: Water is Life, “curated by Vera Longtoe Sheehan (Elnu Abenaki) of the Abenaki Arts and Education Center. 

The Holiday Market has so many gifts to choose from including Native American jewelry, paintings, photography, and unusual ornaments perfect for Christmas trees to decorative gourds, pottery, rattles, flutes, and more at a variety of price points. The chance to talk with the artists that have created these one-of-a-kind objects and to learn about the culture that inspired them makes your gift purchase even more meaningful. 

For music lovers, musicians, and collectors, the magical-sounding authentic Woodland Native American flutes handcrafted by Allan Madahbee are truly unique. Madahbee is an Anishnawbe, born on Manitoulin Island, and is a registered Native American in Canada and the United States. In addition to the one-of-a-kind flutes, Madahbee is offering handmade beaded moccasins, woodcarvings, rock sculptures, and original paintings inspired by his ancestors and experiences. 

Another vendor, Kim Lewis from Native Visions will be offering an astounding array of Native American Art from Oklahoma and the Southwest including a fine selection of original paintings and prints, Zuni Fetishes, silver jewelry, pottery by Mel Cornshucker, plus Hopi, and Navajo Kachinas. 

A long-time favorite of the Holiday Market is Primitive Technologies, a nationally known small business that has worked with everyone from filmmakers to museum curators to recreate the material culture of prehistoric Native American life. They offer exquisite wood-fired replica pottery, hand constructed from local river clay, hand-carved flint arrowheads and flint animal necklaces, carved stone art, traditional stone tools, containers made out of natural materials, unusual jewelry, and decorative gourds. 

Jessie Rose, from the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation, and owner of Rooted in Alchemy will have an array of herbal mixtures including sage, sweetgrass, cedar, and more. Brandy Sawyer, of Cherokee descent, will also be at the holiday market with a wonderful selection of contemporary Native American-inspired art. 

The Museum's Gift Shop will be open and brimming with gifts large and small in many price ranges. Highlights of the gift shop include a distinctive collection of Native American jewelry, including wampum jewelry crafted by Annawon Weeden, Mashpee Wampanoag, and Pequot artist Dan Simonds, head of the Wampum Wear Collective. There are decorative gourds and ornaments created by Jeanne Morningstar Kent, a member of the Nulhegan Coosuk-Abenaki of Vermont, and Native American food from Sweet Grass Trading Company from the Cherokee Indian Reservation. Let your holiday merriment begin at the Institute’s Holiday Market signature event which offers unusual gift items and an immersive cultural experience that celebrates contemporary and traditional Native American-inspired art. 

About The Institute for American Indian Studies

Located on 15 acres of woodland acres the Institute For American Indian Studies preserves and educates through archeology, research, exhibitions, and programs. They have the 16th c. Algonquian Village, Award-Winning Wigwam Escape, and a museum with temporary and permanent displays of authentic artifacts from prehistory to the present allows visitors to foster a new understanding of the world and the history and culture of Native Americans. The Institute for American Indian Studies is located at 38 Curtis Road, Washington, CT.

Open Holiday Weekends @ Tina's Baskets - Studio of a Award Winning Weaver

The holiday spirit is alive and well in Studio #305, Tina's Baskets and Woven Arts, at Whiting Mills, Winsted, Connecticut. Master weaver, Tina Puckett is a national and international award-winning artist known for her woven arts and dimensional weaving. The studio is open on weekends this holiday season giving folks the chance to shop in a highly acclaimed artist's studio with the added bonus of meeting Tina, watching her weave, and learning what inspires her sought-after woven pieces, which are available at a variety of affordable price points. 

Finding the perfect present can be a tricky business - and yet a local artist Tina Puckett weaves baskets, bowls, wall hangers, and sculptures that are pieces of art. Tina's Baskets & Woven Art is sure to satisfy even the most discerning on your holiday list. Visiting her rustic art studio is an adventure in itself, especially if you are on the hunt for something special that is sustainable, ready to be used time and time again, and loved for years to come. 

Many things make Tina's Baskets and Woven Arts, unusual. Each piece is inspired by Tina’s imagination and the natural beauty of bittersweet vines that she weaves into the dynamic shapes with hand-dyed reeds that create a mélange of colors that will not be found anywhere else. What enhances the character of each piece is the addition of the bittersweet vine that is foraged by Tina in the woods near her studio in the Northwest Corner of Connecticut. 

Tina's atmospheric studio # 305 is located in Whiting Mills at 100 Whiting Street in Winsted, Connecticut, and will be open and welcoming the public on Friday, November 25, Saturday, November 26, and Sunday, November 27 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. 

On the following weekend, Tina's Baskets & Woven Art will be participating in the highly anticipated Whiting Mills Holiday Open Studios on Saturday, December 3, and Sunday, December 4 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. In addition to Tina's studio, visitors will also have the opportunity to visit other studios that are not normally open. 

The holiday merriment at Tina's Baskets & Woven Arts continues for two more weekends on Saturday, December 10 & 17, and Sunday, December 11 & 18 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. For additional information please email tina@tinasbaskets.com or visit the website. 

About Tina's Baskets & Woven Art 

Tina Puckett is an internationally awarded weaver of baskets and woven arts. You can see her works in her studio #305/ Tina's Baskets. Located at Whiting Mills in Winsted, Connecticut. Tina has been weaving since 1981 using hand-dyed reeds, bittersweet vines, and a variety of found objects like beads or seagrass. Her work is showcased at galleries across the World and as well at her own gallery/studio where you will often find her weaving on weekends from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Appointments are preferred and can be arranged by texting 860-309-6934.

Learn about the beautiful parks of Bristol

 Bristol, Connecticut has some of the most undiscovered parks in the state whose history is not well known. To learn more, join the Bristol Historical Society on Thursday, November 17 @ 7 p.m. The Historical Society is located at 98 Summer Street in a classic brick building.

Join Sarah Larson, Deputy Superintendent of Bristol Parks, Recreation, Youth and Community Services, as she discusses the history of Bristol’s park system, the role that Rockwell and Page Park played in shaping Bristol during the 20th century, and future park projects. There will also be a display of old park maps, postcards, and more for the guest’s viewing pleasure.

Doors will open at 6:30. Seating is limited to the first hundred that enter. Admission is free for BHS members; a $5 donation is requested for non-members. Parking is available behind the building. Refreshments will be served. For more information click here.