Named after the birthplace of Jesus, Litchfield County’s little town of Bethlehem lives up to its reputation as “Connecticut’s Christmas Town.” Each year, from Thanksgiving to Christmas, thousands of visitors from near and far converge on this quaint, rural community of about 3,500 residents to partake in beloved holiday traditions.
Bethlehem’s Christmas Town Festival came about in 1980: The community pulled together to raise money to replace the Memorial Hall, which had been destroyed by fire.
The festival is run entirely by volunteers, with the goal of raising money to support the town’s treasured community center.
The Benedictine Abbey
Bethlehem’s history is, fittingly, steeped in religion. The first theological seminary in the country was established there, as was the 400-acre Abbey of Regina Laudis on Flanders Road, founded in 1947 as one of the first houses of Benedictine nuns living in contemplative silence in the United States.
The Abbey is home to a rare, 18th-century gem: a Neapolitan creche. The recently restored nativity scene, comprising hand-carved figures of wood, terra cotta, jute and porcelain, has been viewed by people from all over the world. It was gifted to the Abbey by artist and philanthropist Loretta Hines Howard, who also donated a similar creche to New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Unfortunately, the creche, which has been a big draw to Bethelhem during the holiday season, will be closed to the public this year, as it was in 2020, due to COVID-19.
A spokesperson at the Abbey said tentative plans are to reopen the grounds — including the Monastic Art Shop, the Neapolitan creche and a second, charming rustic nativity scene created by Connecticut artist Lauren Ford — to the public in spring of 2022.
Visitors to Bethlehem this holiday season will still have plenty of activities to make a daytrip worth the effort.
Christmas Town Festival Dec. 3 and 4
Among the planned attractions are the 40th annual Christmas Town Festival, slated for the first weekend in December; the unveiling of the 2021 limited-edition pewter Christmas ornament and visits to the Bethlehem Post Office, where generations of families have hand-stamped their holiday cards and packages with one of 83 uniquely designed rubber stamps, known as a cachet.
The festival is at the heart of the holiday festivities and is one of New England’s favorite celebrations. The two-day event around the town Green opens on Friday, Dec. 3, 5 to 9:30 p.m., and continues on Saturday, Dec. 4, from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. The opening ceremony and tree lighting is at 6 p.m. on Friday with Irene O’Connor, honorary emcee and WFSB Channel 3 TV personality.
There will be music, bell choir concerts, lighting of the 85-foot town Christmas tree, photos with Santa, hayrides, a book and cookie sale, craft and food vendors and craft workshops for children and their parents.
The young and young-at-heart are invited to take a roaming train ride, visit Santa’s workshop or go on a scavenger hunt.
To counterbalance all the holiday fun foods, there will be a 5K “Santa Made Me Do It” road race on Saturday, Dec. 4 at 10 a.m.
Festival Committee Chairman George Murdock said as long as the weather cooperates, he expects a robust turnout, especially since the event was put on hold last year for the first time in four decades due to COVID-19. “We could see up to 3,500 people — which equals the population of Bethlehem,” noted Murdock.
Coveted Ornaments and the Postal Cachet
The tradition of the Bethlehem Post Office’s cachet harkens back to 1938 when the late Earl Johnson, the postmaster at that time, designed a rubber stamp with the message “From the Little Town of Bethlehem, Christmas Greetings.”
Since then, new designs have been created by town residents, artists and children.
Bethlehem town officials estimate that hundreds of thousands of holiday greetings are stamped and mailed each season from the small East Street Post Office by people from all over the world. The Post Office will have extended hours during the days of the festival, according to Murdock. It will remain open until 8 p.m. on Friday, and until 3 p.m. on Saturday.
The 2021 Christmas Town Festival Ornament, “Nativity on the Green,” sells for $10 and is available at Town Hall. Murdock said the limited edition, pewter ornaments are sought-after collectibles.
“They are stamped with a sequential number, and only 1,150 are made. When they’re done, they’re done.”
Parking and shuttle details
Admission to the festival and parking at the fairground are free. The town Green is at the junction of Routes 61 and 132. Shuttle bus service will run continuously between the fairground and the Green.
Parking in town during the festival is by permit only and is limited to cars with a handicapped tag, vendors and volunteers participating in the festival. Murdock suggested that anyone looking to park in the permitted spaces at Town Hall enter town from the south, as roads will be closed around the Green. For more information go to www.christmastownfestival.com, or call 203-266-7510, ext. 400.
A highlight of the festival is the lighting of the 85-foot holiday tree on Friday night. Photo by George Murdock
Contemporary chamber musicians, HUB, performing at The Clark.
MASS MoCA is known for its 20th-century holdings spread throughout a sprawling complex of industrial brick buildings. Installations by Sol LeWitt and James Turrell have permanent homes there. Just down the road in Williamstown, the Clark features masterworks by Winslow Homer, Frederic Remington, John Singer Sargent and Claude Monet.
But what visitors might not immediately associate with those established names is how deeply both institutions invest in art happening right now.
On Saturday afternoon, a panel of young artists discussed their relationships with art, identity and technology as part of MASS MoCA’s “Technologies of Relation” exhibition, which opened that evening. The artists represented a broad range of cultural backgrounds, drawing on ancestry while exploring the future of art and technology.
The work itself ran the gamut: wax relief paintings, stained glass, interactive video and sculptural installations. One immersive piece automated the traditional Armenian practice of reading fortunes from coffee grounds. Particularly striking were Roopa Vasudevan’s hand-drawn QR codes and Taeyoon Choi’s large-scale weavings of binary code.
Opening the same night was Zora J. Murff’s “RACE/HUSTLE.” Through photographs, paintings and installations, Murff explores the wide-ranging and sometimes violent implications of being Black in America today. Each piece — whether confronting the rise of white supremacy or examining stereotypes imposed on Black communities — carries razor-sharp visual commentary designed to unsettle.
Pelenakeke Brown’s “Reverb” (detail) at Mass MoCA. D.H. Callahan
On Sunday, the Clark continued the contemporary thread. A small exhibition of work by Raffaella della Olga, titled “Typescript,” features intricate patterns created using a typewriter on varied paper surfaces. The effect seems almost impossible until viewers watch a video of della Olga loading her typewriter with 140-grit sandpaper and typing in a hypnotic rhythm. Though the typewriter is considered obsolete technology, she continues to find new applications for it, completing some of the works in recent months.
Next door in the Clark auditorium, HUB New Music performed works written specifically for its unusual instrumentation: violin, cello, clarinet and flute. While that combination may not stand out to casual listeners, relatively little classical repertoire exists for it. The ensemble regularly commissions composers to expand the possibilities.
The results were striking. From the opening notes of Francisco del Pino’s “Passacaglia,” the quartet’s command and layered repetition pulled unexpected emotion from the audience.
After three pieces came the world premiere of Daniel Wohl’s “Mirage,” a roughly 25-minute work accompanied by digital blips, static and electronic textures evoking radio transmissions and UFO lore. Hearing four virtuoso musicians extract entirely new sounds from traditional instruments echoed the weekend’s larger theme: old tools made new again.
Like della Olga’s typewriter, Vasudevan’s QR codes or Murff’s charged imagery, the performances demonstrated that contemporary art often grows from familiar materials — reimagined.
The old masters will always draw visitors to these institutions. But when living artists command equal attention, this quiet corner of the Berkshires feels less like the middle of nowhere and more like a creative epicenter.
D.H. Callahan is a voice actor, creative director and trail steward. He lives with his artist wife in West Cornwall, Connecticut.
Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.
