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

BRING THE KIDS FOR HOLIDAY LIGHTS, DELIGHTS IN WESTERN CONNECTICUT

Imagine a park wonderland aglow with thousands of twinkling lights and a show every half hour when glittering lights dance to holiday music. 

That is the thrill awaiting families when Lake Compounce, New England’s family theme park, inaugurates its first Holiday Lights season on weekends beginning November 29. The park, located in Bristol, in Western Connecticut’s Litchfield Hills, is one of a trio of special events for families in Litchfield and Fairfield Counties.

Lights are not the only fun planned at Lake Compounce. Family rides and Kiddieland rides will be in operation, strolling carolers will fill the park with song, an ice carver will create frozen sculptures, and the park’s train will be transformed into the North Pole Railway, operated by a certain special bearded conductor dressed in red.  Indoor activities will include cookie decorating, gingerbread house making and the chance to send a letter to Santa, with a guaranteed reply to come in the mail a few days later. Santa himself will be waiting in the Starlight Theater to pose for pictures with his young fans.

Holiday Lights will be open 5 p.m. to 9 pm. on Friday, and 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays, November 29-December 1, and December 6-8, 13-15 and 20-22. For more information, see www.lakecompounce.com

                        See Santa’s Village, Meet Santa’s Reindeer

No need to travel to the North Pole to visit Santa this holiday season. Every year since 1947, Santa and Mrs. Claus have been at home in Torrington’s Christmas Village, greeting friends in a “living room” where a log fire crackles in the fireplace and the ceiling sparkles with tinsel and lights. After a chat with Santa and a small gift, kids can head for the toy-filled workshop where local “elves” from the Parks and Recreation Department are busy with toys destined for youngsters in the town hospital. Live reindeers are waiting in a pen outside.

It is wise to come early as families do line up for this special event, but all declare it is worth the wait. The Christmas Village is located at 150 Church Street in Torrington.  It will be open daily from December 8 to 23 from 1 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. and on Christmas Eve from 9 a.m. to 12 noon. Entrance is free.  For information, check www.torringtonct.org

Santa and his reindeer do get around in December. Over in Fairfield County, the 5th Annual Greenwich Reindeer Festival & Santa's Workshop will be on from November 29 to December 24 at McArdle's Florist & Garden Center, 48 Arch Street in Greenwich. Santa and his reindeer, Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, and Blitzen, arrive on November 29 at 2 p.m., riding down Greenwich Avenue to the Garden Center where refreshments are served to welcome the start of the festival. They remain for all to enjoy through Christmas eve. Feeding times for the reindeer are 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. daily. For more information, see www.greenwichreindeerfestival.com

For more information about holiday activities and a free copy of UNWIND, a full-color, 152-page booklet detailing what to do and see, and where to stay, shop and dine in Fairfield and Litchfield Counties in Western Connecticut, contact the Western Connecticut Visitors Bureau, PO Box 968, Litchfield, CT 06759, (860) 567-45606, or visit their web site at www.visitwesternct.com

Holiday Lights at Lake Compounce

Lake Compounce is proud to announce their first annual “Lake Compounce Holiday Lights”, a brand new family event taking place on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday evenings beginning on November 30th.   The park will open at 5 p.m. on Fridays, and at 4 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays.  The event goes until 9 p.m.and will run November 30, December 1 - 2, 7-9, 14-16, 21-23. The park is located on 822 Lake Ave in Bristol Connecticut and can be reached at 860-585-9987 or by visiting www.lakecompounce.com.

Holiday Lights will provide full family entertainment for all ages, and include festive activities such as a spectacular Holiday light show every half hour at the main gate, which will feature tens of thousands of lights dancing to holiday music.  Kiddeland rides and family themed rides will be in operation. The Train will be transformed into the North Pole Railway, operated by a very special uniformed train conductor with a Holiday story to tell.

There will be indoor activities such as cookie decorating and gingerbread house making. Children will be given the opportunity to customize their very own letter to Santa, and will then receive a personalized letter sent directly to them, from Santa, just a few days later.  On the Kiddeland stage children can enjoy Story Time with Mrs. Clause.  There will be carolers strolling throughout the park, an ice carver creating unique, frozen creations, and lots more festive entertainment.

The childhood favorite photos with Santa is not to be missed in the Starlight Theatre.  The park's gift shops will also be loaded with Holiday themed merchandise for sale, so guests can get their Holiday shopping done, too.
Admission is $14.99 per adult, $10.99 for children ages four though ten, and free for children three and under.  Season pass holders may enter for free with their 2012 or 2013 pass.  Admission fees are plus tax. Tickets may be purchased online now, or at the park gate once the event begins.  Nominal fees will be charged for various activities. Season Passes are being offered at the park at a special sale price of $69.99 plus tax. They can be purchased as holiday gifts and will include special holiday wrapping.

About Lake Compounce

Lake Compounce, part of the Palace Entertainment family of parks, is New England's Family Theme Park and the oldest continuously operating amusement park in North America.  With the largest water park in Connecticut, and a brand new water slide called Riptide Racer, the park is now in its 168th season. This is the first year the park will be celebrating Holiday Lights, which they hope will be a family tradition for years to come. 2013 Season passes, regularly $75.99, will be on sale for a discounted price of $69.99 plus tax, for the duration of the event. More information can be found at www.lakecompounce.com.

For area information contact www.litchfieldhills.com