“Silver bells, silver bells
It’s Christmastime in the city …”
~“Silver Bells”
~“Silver Bells”
~composed by Jay Livingston & Ray Evans
~ 1950
Early Christmas shoppers hunt for
treasures to place under the Christmas tree at Christmas Huts On Main in
historic downtown Bethlehem, Pennsylvania the Saturday before Thanksgiving.
The charming area was transformed
into an authentic German Weihnachtsmarkt, or open-air Christmas market. Vendors
set up shop in Christmas-themed wooden huts brimming with unique gift
ideas along Main Street in what is known as The Christmas City.
These Christmas Huts are located in
front of Central Moravian Church, founded in 1742. The buildings to the right
are part of the South Campus of Moravian College, my alma mater, also founded
in 1742.
On Christmas Eve 1741, in a stable, while a small group of
Moravians were singing a hymn with the stanza “Not Jerusalem, Lowly Bethlehem”
Count Nicolaus Ludwig Von Zinzendorf christened this little town “Bethlehem.”
Since that time Christmas in Bethlehem has been central to the city’s identity.
From the first documented decorated Christmas tree in America to the efforts of
the Bethlehem Chamber of Commerce to get Bethlehem nicknamed “Christmas City
USA” in 1937, to the current time when both sides of the river boast Christmas
markets filled with artisan craft, retail and food vendors, Bethlehem is rife
with one Christmas celebration after another.
