BETHLEHEM, Pa. – It’s officially Christmas time here in the Christmas City!<\/p>\n
It’s really the kickoff to the holiday season,” said Ron Semanick, a Bethlehem resident.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Every year, the city hosts its Annual Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony at Payrow Plaza, and for some, it’s a yearly tradition.<\/p>\n
“Every year we come down here, and I grew up in Bethlehem, born in 1961 and probably come down here, many, many years, just to watch the tree lighting,” said Semanick.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I think we’ve been here every year. We just bundle up. Gotta see the tree lighting,” said Sarah Kimock.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But there’s more to the ceremony then just the beautiful tree. The plaza also had holiday performances from local musicians.<\/p>\n
“My husband was playing drums, he was playing music up on the stage, and we wanted to be around and hear the festive music and see Santa,” said Kimock.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This year’s tree is a real Christmas City tree. The 21 foot spruce behind me was grown right here in the city of Bethlehem.<\/p>\n
But not everyone showed up for the tree. Some were here for the special guest.<\/p>\n
“And then they said Santa was still here, and we got some great pictures by the tree, the Nativity and with little Charlie and Santa Claus,” said Patty Bacak of Bethlehem.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And even the cold couldn’t stop the Christmas spirit!<\/p>\n
“It was very a beautiful evening. Little bit chilly tonight, but we just love looking at the lights and coming to downtown Bethlehem, so festive this time of year,” said Semanick.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And always living up to its Christmas City title.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BETHLEHEM, Pa. – It’s officially Christmas time here in the Christmas City! It’s really the kickoff to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":47367,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120,153,27775,27779,5527,11314,21618,24408,19334,27778,27777,28,27774,27772,27776,27773],"class_list":{"0":"post-47366","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-allentown","8":"tag-allentown","9":"tag-allentown-headlines","10":"tag-allentown-news","11":"tag-bethlehem","12":"tag-capitol-christmas-tree","13":"tag-charlie","14":"tag-christmas","15":"tag-christmas-city","16":"tag-christmas-decorations","17":"tag-christmas-lights","18":"tag-christmas-tree","19":"tag-patty-bacak","20":"tag-payrow-plaza","21":"tag-pennsylvania","22":"tag-rockefeller-center-christmas-tree","23":"tag-ron-semanick","24":"tag-sarah-kimock","25":"tag-spruce"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47366\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}