According to the city\u2019s official website,<\/a> the town of Bethlehem was christened on Christmas Eve of that year. It\u2019s not the only town in the area to be named after a biblical location \u2014 the valley also is home to towns named Egypt, Emmaus, and Nazareth.<\/p>\n In the intervening years since its founding, the town has sought to lean into its name by branding itself \u201cChristmas City USA.\u201d<\/a> The town even claims<\/a> to have put up the first documented Christmas tree in the (future) United States, in 1747.<\/p>\n The town has seen a lot throughout its lengthy history, including the deaths of about 500 of its soldiers in the Revolutionary War. One of the original buildings in the town is thought to be the largest 18th-century log structure in continuous use in the United States, the town\u2019s website says.<\/p>\n The town\u2019s status as a nexus of industry is long as well. Just six years after its founding, the town website says, some 35 crafts, trades, and industries had been established, including a butchery, clockmakers, and numerous mills of different kinds. Bethlehem\u2019s Colonial Industrial Quarter had, the town says, the largest concentration of pre-Industrial Revolution crafts, trades, and industries in America and \u201ccan be considered America\u2019s earliest industrial park.\u201d<\/p>\n A steel plant in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Credit: Peter Miller\/Flickr<\/p>\n Bethlehem Steel was once one of the most important manufacturers in the entire country, as it provided the steel for such iconic structures as the Golden Gate Bridge, the Empire State Building, and the Hoover Dam.<\/p>\n And according to at least one historian,<\/a> the United States may not have succeeded in the two World Wars if Bethlehem Steel, with its wartime peak of some 300,000 workers, had not been able to turn out the necessary materials for the country\u2019s military. Bethlehem Steel alone produced 1,127 ships during World War II.<\/p>\n The massive plant in the corporation\u2019s hometown finally closed down for good in 2003 after the company declared bankruptcy two years earlier. Still a prominent landmark on the city\u2019s riverfront, the rusted, dystopian steel mill towers have been preserved and incorporated into a trendy new public park and music venue.<\/p>\n Inside Holy Infancy Catholic Church in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, which is located on Bethlehem\u2019s south side and founded in 1861, attracting Catholic immigrants from all over the world who came to work in the steel industry. Credit: Courtesy of Holy Infancy Catholic Church<\/p>\n Catholics in Bethlehem<\/p>\n Father Andrew Gehringer, pastor of Holy Infancy Catholic Church<\/a>, told CNA that his parish, which is located on Bethlehem\u2019s south side, was founded back in 1861 and attracted Catholic immigrants from all over the world who moved to Bethlehem to work in the steel industry. In the town\u2019s heyday, there were six Catholic churches within 10 blocks, he said, with Holy Infancy being the first. Germans, Irish, Hungarians, Polish, Portuguese, and Brazilian people have all made Bethlehem home over the years.<\/p>\n Today, Mass is offered at Holy Infant in English, Spanish, and Portuguese. Gehringer said the multicultural nature of his parish lends itself to numerous fascinating Christmas traditions. For example, Portuguese-speaking parishioners participate in the \u201cNovena de Natal\u201d<\/a> (Christmas novena), a nine-day prayerful meditation on the birth of Christ.<\/p>\n Spanish-speaking Catholics celebrate \u201cLas Posadas” at Holy Infancy Catholic Church in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, which is located on Bethlehem\u2019s south side and founded in 1861. Credit: Courtesy of Holy Infancy Catholic Church<\/p>\n A similar devotion, \u201cLas Posadas,\u201d is practiced by the parish\u2019s Spanish-speaking Catholics. The Spanish word \u201cposada\u201d means \u201cinn,\u201d and this devotion commemorates Mary and Joseph\u2019s journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem, where they sought shelter for the birth of Jesus. Like the Portuguese Christmas novena, Las Posadas begins on Dec. 16 and involves the recitation of the rosary followed by a procession, Mass, and a celebration with a pi\u00f1ata on the nights leading up to Christmas.<\/p>\n \u201cWe really do push the multicultural flair of our parish. So we have multicultural dinners, and we have a multicultural summer festival,\u201d Gehringer continued.<\/p>\n The priest said the town, as you can imagine, goes all out decorating for Christmas. Many of the decorations are religious, such as a Nativity scene in the center of the city, as well as innumerable Christmas trees. Gehringer said some of the parish\u2019s Spanish-speakers have been asked in years past to decorate Christmas trees for the city in the manner of their culture.<\/p>\n![\"Cloudinary](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/bethlehempasteelplant12.21.23.jpeg\"\/)
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