Christmas Season in Full Swing Downtown: Your Week

The Christmas season is now in full swing in the Christmas City.

That means that whatever else you might have going on, every day is potentially a good day to enjoy the special sights and sounds of the season in the downtown.

That includes holiday tours offered by the Historic Bethlehem Museums & Sites. Those include the Christmas City Stroll, Scenic Horsedrawn Carriage Rides, the Bethlehem by Night Bus Tour and the holiday version of the Rise & Fall of Bethlehem Steel. 

For more information on tour times or to purchase tickets, contact the Historic Bethlehem Visitor Center at 505 Main St., call 1-800-360-TOUR or view this website: www.historicbethlehem.org.

That also includes the Live Advent Calendar, which will be held nightly—at 5:30 p.m. sharp—at the 1810 Goundie House, 505 Main St., through Dec. 23. 

Nightly, a merchant from the Downtown Bethlehem Association will present a special treat to the visitors who gather around that front door. In years past, those treats have included special performances, holiday sweets and other gifts. As many as 300 people have attended these unique door openings, so if you go, go early.

Here is what else is going on in Bethlehem this week:

• Public schools are closed Monday.

• The Bethlehem Area School Board meets for reorganization and a committee of the whole meeting at 6 p.m. Monday in the Education Center on Sycamore Street. The board is scheduled to interview five candidates to fill an empty school board seat.

• Bethlehem City Council will hold a budget hearing at 7 p.m. Monday in Town Hall. The agenda includes discussion of Community Development and Debt Service for 2014.

• Bethlehem Township Commissioners meet at 7 p.m. Monday. The agenda appears to be a light one.

• Bethlehem City Council will hold a regular meeting at 7 p.m. Tuesday. Council’s Finance Committee will meet at 6:30 p.m. to discuss police overtime and fire department roster duty.

• Acoustic Hot Tuna, the legendary blues rock pairing of Jefferson Airplane’s Jack Casady and Jorma Kaukonen, come to the Musikfest Café stage at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday. Tickets are $40 and $30.

• Celtic Woman, that global sensation singing ensemble that seems to be on PBS all the time, visits the Sands Bethlehem Event Center for a holiday concert at 8 p.m. Wednesday. Tickets are $79.50 and $60.

• Standup comic Mike Lawrence visits the Frank Banko Alehouse Cinemas at 8 p.m. Thursday for a Two Laugh Minimum performance at SteelStacks. Lawrence has been seen on Conan O’Brien, John Oliver’s New York Standup Show and on his own half-hour special on Comedy Central. Tickets are $10, less for students, seniors and ArtsQuest members.