Kelly Ferguson, a soft-spoken fellow with long hair and a ZZ Top beard, is leading me toward a municipal light pole that stands at a street corner along Bethlehem Road. It\u2019s mid-November and getting dark. An irregular stream of cars and trucks provides what counts as rush hour in this part of Maryland\u2019s rural Delmarva Peninsula.<\/p>\n
Ferguson stretches to reach a light switch about 7 feet up the pole.<\/p>\n
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\u201cLet\u2019s see if the bulbs are all working,\u201d he says, flicking it.<\/p>\n
Above the traffic, hanging from a wire that stretches across the street, a 10-bulb Star of Bethlehem flickers to life. Well, at least nine bulbs. One light, at the star\u2019s apex, fails to illuminate.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Bethlehem-MD-860.jpg\")
The Star of Bethlehem at an intersection in Bethlehem, Maryland (Photo courtesy of Bill Newcott)<\/p>\n
Ferguson frowns. This will not do for the 25 or so people who live in Bethlehem, Maryland.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll get ahold of a cherry picker and try to replace that one on Thanksgiving morning,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
For most of us, Christmas comes but once a year. But for the good people of Bethlehem, Maryland, along with some 30 other identically named communities around the U.S., it\u2019s a low-burning holiday season every time they drive past their town\u2019s \u201cWelcome to Bethlehem\u201d sign.<\/p>\n
From the nation\u2019s westernmost Bethlehem, in South Dakota, to Lower Bethlehem on the U.S. Virgin Island of St. Croix (probably so-named by Moravian missionaries from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania), it appears the locals inevitably draw much of their year-round identity from their namesake town an ocean and an inland sea away.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s certainly true of Bethlehem, Maryland, where the Star of Bethlehem hangs unlit all year, an almost subliminal reminder of this place name\u2019s significance.<\/p>\n
Besides being Keeper of the Star \u2013 lit all December \u2013 Ferguson is owner of Bethlehem Consignments & More, a shambling collection of clothes, knick-knacks, toys, and what-nots, some of which literally spill out the front door at Bethlehem\u2019s main \u2014 and, truth be told, only \u2013 intersection.<\/p>\n
The store is worth a half-day\u2019s perusal at any time of year, but around Christmas, Ferguson and his wife, Ruth, pull out all the holiday consignment stuff, creating a realm of colorful, if sometimes slightly droopy, Yuletide cheer. They also sell exclusive \u201cBethlehem, Maryland\u201d tree ornaments, and attached to the store is a U.S. Post Office that draws people from more than 50 miles away to have their Christmas cards postmarked \u201cBethlehem.\u201d What\u2019s more, since 1939 the Bethlehem postmaster has been stamping each card with a large image of the Three Kings following the Christmas Star.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Bethlehem-MD-ornament-in-consignment-store-860.jpg\")
A Bethlehem ornament sold in Ferguson\u2019s store (Photo courtesy of Bill Newcott)<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s funny,\u201d says Ferguson. \u201cI grew up near Bethlehem, Kentucky, and here I am living in Bethlehem, Maryland. Not on purpose. Bethlehem just seems to happen to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bethlehem, Texas<\/p>\n
On a lonely stretch of Farm Road 1650, about 13 miles north of Longview, you\u2019ll roll through one of America\u2019s littlest towns of Bethlehem: There\u2019s a three-way intersection, a cemetery, a couple of houses, and the Open Range Cowboy Church, housed in a low-slung, windowless steel building. Each Sunday, men and women representing Texas\u2019s centuries-old cowboy culture gather to pray, sing, and listen to messages. Before each service, the men gather in one prayer circle and the women in another.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Bethlehem-TX-Cowboy-Church-Google-Streetview-860.jpg\")
The Cowboy Church in Bethlehem, Texas (Google Street View)<\/p>\n
Most years, the Cowboy Church stages a Christmas play. It\u2019s a modest affair \u2013 a far cry from the over-the-top holiday light shows that draw tourists by the thousands to Texas\u2019s big cities.<\/p>\n
Still, the quiet streets of Bethlehem, Texas are for sure a lot more like the ones a certain expectant couple trod, looking for a place to spend the night, more than 2,000 years ago. It\u2019s hard to imagine a more authentically American way to spend the holidays than here, where Bethlehem is home on the range.<\/p>\n
Bethlehem, Iowa
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Bethlehem Chapel (Photo by Dave Baker)<\/p>\n
As you might expect, from the time Bethlehem, Iowa was founded in 1852, they\u2019ve had churches. By the late 1800s, when some 300 people lived in the village, there seem to have been at least three. But today, in a community of less than 25, only one remains: an almost impossibly small nondenominational wayside church known to locals as The Bethlehem Chapel.<\/p>\n
The pint-sized house of worship was built in 1973, after the local Methodists disbanded their local church.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Bethlehem-GA-Live-Nativity-860.jpg\")
The live Nativity at Bethlehem First United Methodist Church (Photo courtesy of Bill Newcott)<\/p>\n