{"id":114394,"date":"2022-10-27T22:16:05","date_gmt":"2022-10-28T02:16:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=114394"},"modified":"2022-12-17T16:04:43","modified_gmt":"2022-12-17T21:04:43","slug":"bethlehem-tree-lighting-scheduled-volunteers-sponsors-sought","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=114394","title":{"rendered":"Bethlehem Tree Lighting Scheduled. Volunteers, Sponsors Sought."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Citizens Christmas City Committee requests donations to prepare for most magical night of the year<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Event Details<br \/>\nDate:<\/strong>\u00a0Friday, November 18, 2022 at 5:00 pm<br \/>\n<strong>Time:\u00a0<\/strong>Payrow Plaza\/City Hall | 10 E. Church Street | Bethlehem, PA<\/p>\n<p>Bethlehem, PA (October 27, 2022) &#8211; Bethlehem\u2019s Citizen\u2019s Christmas City Committee is looking for volunteers and donations to support the city\u2019s annual tree lighting ceremony. \u201cWe\u2019re just a blink away from the most wonderful time of the year and we can\u2019t wait to see the community come together to deck the halls,\u201d said Kelly Smith, the Director of the Downtown Bethlehem Association.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>About the Tree Lighting Ceremony<\/strong><br \/>\nThe ceremony to officially kick off Bethlehem\u2019s holiday season begins at 5pm on Friday, November\u00a018 (the Friday before Thanksgiving). Guests will enjoy hot chocolate, a chance to meet Santa, and the \u201cNot-So-Silent-Night\u201d Christmas concert. The concert includes the Freedom High School Marching Band, Swingtime Dolls, the Holmes Family Singers, Seth Witcher, and Cunningham &amp; Associates.<\/p>\n<p>During the event, the committee will unveil the holiday trellis. This year\u2019s display features custom engraved ornaments featuring the beloved Moravian tradition of placing lit candles in windows. The ornament theme is celebrating life\u2019s milestones. Some honor marriages, new babies, new homes, and new careers.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Volunteers Needed<\/strong><br \/>\nVolunteers have always been an important part of Bethlehem\u2019s Christmas activities. The Bethlehem Chamber of Commerce notes, \u201cIn the 1960\u2019s the nonprofit Citizens Christmas City Committee (of the Chamber of Commerce) was formed to help dignify the look of Christmas in the City of Bethlehem while at the same time absorbing a share of the costs of bringing Christmas to the public. The Committee continues to raise the funds every year to purchase over 800 trees that are lit during the Christmas season.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Decades earlier, volunteers worked with The Bethlehem Chamber of Commerce to help the city earn the \u201cChristmas City\u201d title. The Chamber website explains, \u201cIn 1937, The Bethlehem Chamber of Commerce started a nationwide letter writing effort to 2,500 Chambers of Commerce asking each of them to notify their local newspapers of the campaign to make Bethlehem, Pennsylvania \u2018the Christmas City.\u2019 It was suggested that people throughout the country send their Christmas cards to Bethlehem to receive the \u2018Christmas City\u2019 cancellation. Most of the Chambers participated and more than 185,000 pieces of mail inundated the Bethlehem Post Office.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This year, the Chamber has opportunities for volunteers to set up and decorate, hand out programs and treats, serve as candy helpers and Santa\u2019s elves, and more. Citizens interested in volunteering can register online at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.signupgenius.com\/go\/10C0B48A5AE2AAB9-christmas\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/www.signupgenius.com\/go\/10C0B48A5AE2AAB9-christmas<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><u><br \/>\n<\/u>Event sponsorship opportunities are also available. Individuals or organizations interested in sponsoring the holiday fun should email\u00a0<a href=\"mailto:Brittneyc@lehighvalleychamber.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Brittneyc@lehighvalleychamber.org<\/a>\u00a0for more information.<\/p>\n<p>Information provided to TVL by:<br \/>\nLaurie Monteforte | Founder &amp; CEO<br \/>\nStrong Mountain Media, Inc.<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/strongmountainmedia.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/strongmountainmedia.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Citizens Christmas City Committee requests donations to prepare for most magical night of the year Event Details Date:\u00a0Friday, November 18, 2022 at 5:00 pm Time:\u00a0Payrow Plaza\/City Hall | 10 E. &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=114394\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Bethlehem Tree Lighting Scheduled. Volunteers, Sponsors Sought.<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":114395,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[69,482,5722],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-114394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-the-valley","category-press-release-2","category-volunteer"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/2022-tree-lighting.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114394"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=114394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114394\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/114395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=114394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=114394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=114394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}